Cong tries to get back its lost vote bank repeating old promises

Syed Ali Ahmed

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 18

The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) is trying to get back its lost vote bank by repeating the old promises made in 2008 and 2014 assembly elections, sources in the party said.

Residents of unauthorised colonies, jhuggy clusters, Muslims and backwards were traditional vote banks of the Congress party in Delhi and elsewhere and on their basis the Congress had ruled Delhi for 15 consecutive years, the sources said.

A few days ago,  former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit at “Meri Basti Jansamvad” held at Timarpur assured the residents of JJ clusters that if the Congress came to power, in-situ flats would be constructed for them.

This is the same promise that the Congress had made in 2008 and 2014 assembly elections. In 2008, the Congress had also promised to regularise 1,600 unauthorised colonies that were surveyed by the Dikshit-led Delhi government, MCD and Urban Development Ministry of the Congress-led Union government, the sources said.

The Congress was voted to power in 2008, but no in-situ flats were constructed and not a single unauthorised colony was regularised. Consequently, in the 2014 assembly elections, the Congress was defeated badly in all assembly constituencies and security of Sheila was forfeited.

In parliamentary elections also, the Congress was defeated in all seven seats that were bagged by the BJP. The AAP was on second position in all the constituencies, the sources added.