After failing to secure even a single seat in the last two Delhi Assembly elections, the Congress appears to be on the threshold of achieving a hat-trick of sorts. The appointment of a new general secretary in-charge of the city, as well as the declaration of three names for the screening committee indicate that the grand old party, once a force to reckon with in the capital, is preparing to lose the battle even before it has begun. As it is, the earlier in-charge, Deepak Babaria (who was also the prabhari for Haryana) was a disaster, having scant knowledge of the issues. The new appointee, Qazi Mohammad Nizamuddin, is also being widely regarded in political circles as a wrong choice. He is to be assisted by Imran Masood, Meenakshi Natrajan and Pradeep Narwal. While it is the prerogative of any party’s leadership to nominate anyone of their choice for any specific assignment, the decision has not gone down well with the rank and file of the Congress, or whatever is left of it, after two major drubbings in the past two elections. Firstly, when the battle is with the BJP and the Congress has to erase the impression that it was an outfit which was tilting towards the minorities, having two Muslims in key positions, is obviously a folly. It is certainly not to suggest that these two gentlemen are less committed to the ideology than any of their colleagues. It is only to point out that strategically, it is a wrong move. Otherwise also the Muslims had voted for the Congress in the recent Parliamentary elections, so what was the High Command wanting to achieve with these politically incorrect optics. The situation is similar to the time when the Congress would field Muslim spokespersons on TV debates when the Ram Janambhoomi or Hindutva issues were being discussed. No one has ever doubted the secular credentials of the Congress, therefore, it does not have to prove these by the appointments, when the matter can damage it politically, given that its main adversary is obsessed with the Hindutva narrative. In addition, Muslims of the walled city have always considered any Muslim from any other part of the country to be not at par with them because of their background which dates back to the Mughal era. This observation may appear to be odd but whether one likes it or not is also largely true. The party in the national capital has not been able to recover from the massive defeat of the 2013 Polls, where the sitting Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had forfeited her deposit after being trounced by Arvind Kejriwal from the Gole Market (New Delhi) constituency. Dikshit had been the Chief Minister for 15 years but during her tenure, the Congress organization had collapsed with no new leaders being developed or nurtured. The present leadership of the Delhi party is wishing to contest the polls in her name, but have the limitation of a weak organizational structure, though the president, Devendra Yadav, is putting in a lot of hard work.
However, this hardwork in absence of a clear-cut strategy is unlikely to yield any political dividends, and most of those who are seeking tickets are the old guard, who want the nomination for either themselves or their sons or daughters. The question that arises is that who else should have been entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing the party’s affairs by the High Command. The Congress has no dearth of suitable leaders who could monitor the elections. For instance, had Deepender Hooda been appointed as the in-charge, he could have made a difference. Deepender has been looking after the NSUI’s DUSU efforts for many years, and knows the younger people across the city personally. He is also regarded as an upcoming Jat leader (who also enjoys goodwill amongst other castes) and there is a sizable number of his community which resides in Delhi. He would have been an asset and being a member of the Lok Sabha, he could have proved to be a positive for his party. Other than him, Sachin Pilot, who has also overseen political affairs of Rajasthan as the party president there, could have been considered. Sachin is also from the Gujjar community, which has a good presence in many parts of rural Delhi in particular. Manish Tewari, former Youth Congress president and the Lok Sabha MP from Chandigarh, has lived in Delhi for most of his life. He has the acceptability and the stature to carry everyone with him. In addition, he is a Brahmin and a Punjabi, who could help the party to revive in the city. The Congress at present needs to open its account and thus needs a prabhari who can help in achieving this target through proper management and fair selection of the nominees. There is also a need to involve seniors like Subhash Chopra and JP Aggarwal in some capacity or the other. The Congress does not have Chief Ministerial face and though Devendra Yadav belongs to the same community as the first Chief Minister, Chaudhury Brahm Perkash, he has a long way to go. Ajay Maken is reluctant to come back into local politics and others have to build themselves up. The party shall be up against the AAP, which wishes to make the city Congress Mukt and the BJP. The Saffron Brigade is also looking for a CM face and names of Smriti Irani, Meenakshi Lekhi and Bansuri Swaraj are doing the rounds. However, if the BJP was to opt for Manoj Tewari, the AAP would certainly have sleepless nights given the strong Poorvanchali presence in the city.
