Zero seats, 6% votes: Congress draws a blank for 3rd time on trot | India News
NEW DELHI: Congress’s failure to win a single seat for the third consecutive time and a vote share of a little over 6% puts a big question mark on its future in Delhi.
The capital’s voters were unstirred by the high voltage campaign led by Rahul Gandhi and his attacks on AAP and Arvind Kejriwal, centred around “Sheesh Mahal” and the liquor “scam”, besides civic and governance issues, did not result in any gains for the party.
Delhi Election Results 2025
While Congress managed to marginally improve its share from 4% in 2020, it lost, like last time, deposits in 67 of the 70 seats. Two of the three candidates who managed to save their deposits – Devender Yadav from Badli and Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar – were among the three to do so last time too. Nangloi Jat candidate Rohit Chaudhary also managed to save his deposit.
While the party celebrated the defeat of AAP as an opportunity for it to regain its support base, the results clearly showed its core constituency of Muslims, Dalits and OBCs, were not swayed by its campaign.
Congress also suffered due to the alliance it forged with AAP in the Lok Sabha polls despite resistance from the state unit. A lingering buzz over another alliance between the two parties does not seem to have gone down well with voters.
The poll outcome also brings into focus other factors like the party’s inability to build a strong organisational base amid repeated changes of PCC chiefs. The last change hit Congress very badly ahead of the Lok Sabha polls when party heavyweight Arvinder Singh Lovely quit, putting in sharp relief the differences within the party, including on the decision to ally with AAP. He went on to join BJP and won from Gandhi Nagar.
Amid the challenges it needs to address, the Congress leadership is of the view that its strategy of a no-holds barred attack on AAP has once and for all ended the confusion in the minds of people that the party can ally with AAP. This, the party hopes, will help bolster its position in Punjab and the municipal polls in Delhi in 2027.
