The actual vote shares will give a clearer indication of what happened in Delhi but as Congress leaders huddle over the drawing board, some factors that worked against the party are clear as daylight.
While the popular mood against politicians and corruption, the yearning for a break with the past explain may have been a reason, here are 11 reasons one can think of for the party’s debacle.
The actual vote shares will give a clearer indication of what happened in Delhi but as Congress leaders huddle over the drawing board, some factors that worked against the party are clear as daylight.
If Congress can lose Delhi, then it can conceivably lose the country, and possibly for many of the same reasons. Although a fuller understanding of the spectacular surprise sprung by the Aam Aadmi Party will have to await a clearer picture of the vote share, one can perhaps make an attempt at explaining why the Congress lost Delhi in so spectacular a fashion. The upsurge of AAP also needs to be seen in terms of the decline of the vote share of the two national parties. Or did the Congress supporters switch sides and voted for AAP while BJP supporters remained committed to it? There is also the possibility that the BJP’s vote share also shrunk but it won more seats in a triangular skirmish.
While that will be debated in the coming days and weeks, what is not disputed is the fact that Delhi remains the most ‘liveable’ city in the country and has changed for the better during the last 15 years. Both the state government led by Sheila Dikshit and the union government led by Manmohan Singh can take credit for cleaning up the city, providing it with a rapid transport system and inviting investment in the National Capital Region, which benefited Delhi as well as the neighbouring states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. But none of it helped the Congress retain Delhi. Its crushing defeat indicates clearly that voters wanted to punish it in no uncertain terms, that the party has indeed lost the confidence and trust of a large section of the people in the national capital.
What could have led to such a crushing defeat ? Can the popular mood against politicians and corruption, the yearning for a break with the past explain it fully? While they have undoubtedly been key factors, there are 11 other reasons one can think of for the party’s debacle.