Delhi debacle likely to isolate Cong further in INDIA bloc

With both Congress and AAP busy contesting against each other in the Delhi elections, not a single meeting of the INDIA bloc floor leaders has taken place in Parliament since the Budget session began on January 31.

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Now with the Congress having scored a blank in the Delhi poll and AAP facing a heavy defeat, there is a possibility of other INDIA bloc partners like Samajwadi Party (SP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC), who had canvassed for AAP, may try and isolate the Congress in Parliament.

Normally during Parliament sessions, especially after the Lok Sabha poll and mainly during the prolonged Monsoon Session and even the Winter Session, the INDIA bloc partners used to meet at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s chamber to chalk out strategies to corner the ruling BJP on the floor of the House. However with both Congress and AAP having fought the Delhi poll as political rivals and other INDIA allies like SP and TMC having campaigned for AAP, the chances of the Opposition alliance floor leaders holding brainstorming sessions during the Budget session look remote, sources aware of the development said.

The results of the Delhi Assembly elections will only further deepen the cracks within the INDIA bloc, as a lot of bad blood was exchanged between Congress and AAP during the run-up to the poll. While Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi openly attacked AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal during campaigning, the former Delhi Chief Minister accused the Congress and BJP of being in cahoots against his party. Kejriwal even alleged that while the Congress did not once say a word against the BJP, it continuously attacked AAP during Delhi poll canvassing.

Also the AAP convener’s margin of loss against BJP’s Parvesh Verma from the prestigious New Delhi constituency was equal to the number of votes polled by Congress candidate Sandeep Dikshit, who finished third. While Kejriwal lost by 4,089 votes to Verma, Dikshit polled a total of 4,568 votes. Similarly in several other seats like Sangam Vihar, Congress ate into AAP’s votes, leading to the defeat of its candidates.

The post-Delhi polls scenario will isolate Congress further within the INDIA bloc, with SP and TMC having already shown signs of not exactly being in sync with the main Opposition party.

During the Monsoon Session, while the Congress remained stuck on the Adani-Hindenberg scandal, allies like SP and TMC as well as the Left had repeatedly suggested to the main Opposition party to raise other people-centric issues in Parliament. The differences were more apparent during SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s speech in Lok Sabha on February 4, who — while referring to the policy of liberalisation of 1991 by the PV Narasimha Rao government — lamented that had the focus been kept on the manufacturing sector, India would have raced ahead of China by now.

Yadav’s comments were seen as an apparent jab at the Congress, and showed the growing distance among allies, which may now get further accentuated post-Delhi poll.