No takers for AAP-Congress alliance in Delhi

Rasheed Kidwai

Journalist and author

The countdown for the February 8 Delhi Assembly polls has begun and the three major political parties — the Aam Aadmi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress — have started ‘war preparations’ in contrasting styles.

The BJP, devoid of a chief ministerial face, intends to rely heavily on emotive national issues, such as the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the controversy surrounding the National Register for Citizens (NRC). Since Delhi has had ‘Bangladeshi ghuspaithias’ (infiltrators) as a political issue, the BJP hopes to garner support by ‘otherising’ the CAA-NRC protesters. Its intensive, block-wise campaign model plans to ensure physical visits by the BJP leaders to every Delhi household. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s move to regularise 1,728 unauthorised colonies, giving them relief from income tax liability and levying a minimal stamp duty of 0.5 per cent for registration of properties, is a major plank to attract the socio-economically weaker classes.

The poll strategy of AAP revolves around Arvind Kejriwal’s persona, the success of mohalla clinics, government-run schools, a reduction in electricity and water supply bills and the Prashant Kishor-curated slogan of Achhe Beete Paanch Saal, Lage Raho Kejriwal. The operative part of the AAP campaign is to overcome the anti-incumbency sentiment and showcase continuity of purpose.

The Congress drive appears most lacklustre and bereft of ideas. The BJP may not have a chief ministerial face, but it has many aspirants, such as Manoj Tiwari, Vijay Goel, Parvesh Verma, Harsh Vardhan and Hardeep Puri. But in the Congress camp, there is none. While Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Subhash Chopra may be privately harbouring an ambition, there has been no manifestation of it. Other notables, ranging from Kapil Sibal and Ajay Maken to Sandeep Dikshit, Sharmishta Mukherjee and Kirti Azad, are nowhere on the horizon.

Instead, the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress has dished out a ‘dad’s army’ running into 17 pages, accommodating anyone and everyone in the Delhi pradesh election committee, campaign committee, manifesto committee, publicity committee, election management committee and media coordination committee. There are 607 members (yes, 607) figuring in these committees. The composition of these panels is deprived of any organisational hierarchy, age, political stature and other parameters of parliamentary democracy.

Take for instance, the pradesh election committee, generally tasked with strategising elections. It is headed by DPCC chief Subhash Chopra but veterans like 88-year-old Dr Karan Singh and former AICC general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi have been made members of it, along with 53 others. The Karan Singh-Dwivedi duo also figures in the 65-member election management committee and the campaign committee. The media coordination panel consists of 104 members while the Congress continues to boycott participating in TV news debates and discussions. The publicity committee runs into 156 members while 69 Congress leaders have been tasked with assisting the election manifesto. Congress insiders wonder how these meetings will be conducted and mega-panel suggestions and recommendations implemented when time is running out.

In many panels, offices and decorative nomenclatures have been thrown in rather recklessly. Take the campaign panel, for instance. The Kirti Azad-led panel has five vice-chairpersons, namely, AK Walia, Krishna Tirath, Mateen Ahmed, Parvez Hashmi and Yogendra Shastri. It has a convener, Chattar Singh, and a co-convener, Shivji Singh, to manage the 157-member body that includes four AICC secretaries, heads of frontal organisations and departmental-cell chiefs and opposition leaders in the Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Congress leaders handling Delhi say the party’s strong support to the CAA-NRC agitation has the potential of providing an opening for the BJP as AAP has tactically been backing the protests. If the Congress manages to cut into AAP votes, particularly among the minorities, the BJP stands to gain from it.

Significantly, there are no takers for an AAP-Congress alliance or seat adjustment. During the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Rahul Gandhi, who was the AICC chief then, had explored the option due to pressure from leaders like Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee and Chandrababu Naidu. Congress leaders claim that Kejriwal remained adamant on extending the alliance beyond Delhi while the Congress offered a 4:3 arrangement for Delhi in favour of AAP. Just as the Lok Sabha poll dates were announced, the Congress realised a pattern of sorts. Each time the two sides met, AAP would ask for Punjab or Goa or Haryana Lok Sabha seat adjustment while reiterating 4:3 Delhi seats. When the Congress forcefully made it clear that the alliance was restricted to Delhi, AAP asked for five seats in the national capital. As luck would have it, some deep throat from within the AAP reportedly alerted the Congress that the design was to get the Congress defeated from two seats and prepare the ground for next year’s Delhi Assembly polls. It was a shocking revelation that sealed all doors.

In the final Delhi outcome, both the AAP and the Congress conceded all seven Lok Sabha seats to the BJP. The only consolation the Congress had was coming a poor second in five places and leading in five of the 70 Assembly segments.

Incidentally, a post-poll survey conducted by The Hindu-CSDS-Lokniti revealed that a majority of the Congress and AAP supporters was not in favour of the two parties coming together. The May 2019 findings indicated that one-fourth of those who voted for the BJP and the Congress were likely to vote for AAP in the state Assembly polls. The survey had also found that 54 per cent of Delhi’s voters were in favour of giving AAP another chance to govern.

Senior Congress leaders handling Delhi concede that the chances of the Congress playing a role in government formation on the lines of Maharashtra or Jharkhand are still slim as either AAP or the BJP is set to gain a comfortable majority. A repeat of the 2013 Assembly polls where AAP had 28 seats and the Congress eight is unlikely but it’s the most cherished scenario for the grand old party.