Blame game in Congress

LEADERS BLAME MAKEN, SAY HE FOCUSED TOO MUCH ON PROVIDING SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS INSTEAD OF TARGETING THE BJP

NEWDELHI: Despite its ‘best efforts’, the Congress failed to shore up its fortune in the Delhi municipal elections.

The party that had 83 councillors in the three corporations secured only 30 wards, failing to cash in on the decade-long antiincumbency against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that ruled the three civic bodies.

Taking moral responsibility for the defeat, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken and the party’s in-charge of Delhi affairs PC Chacko announced their resignations on Wednesday afternoon. But that didn’t stop the blame game.

Party leaders blamed Maken for the debacle, saying he focused too much on providing solutions to problems in the three corporations instead of targeting the BJP directly for its poor show for two straight terms.

They said senior national leaders were involved in the manifesto but they did not forcefully campaign like the BJP leaders. “All their Delhi MPs and a number of cabinet ministers were on the roads holding roadshows and addressing public meetings,” he said. A senior party functionary said Maken ignored state leaders, causing embarrassment to the party, despite the fact the party had won the Punjab assembly elections and performed well in Goa and Manipur.

“One of the reasons for its failure is that the state leadership could not resolve internal fighting,” he said.

The departure of senior leader and four-time MLA Arvinder Singh ‘Lovely’, Delhi youth wing president Amit Malik, and former Delhi Commission of Women Barkha Singh worked against the party. The trio joined the BJP.

Former chief minister Sheila Dikshit said Maken failed to reach out to the people and could not gauge the public mood. She said the party should have campaigned more aggressively in favour of their candidates.

Former Delhi minister in the Dikshit government Haroon Yusuf said the party should have countered the BJP’s campaign more assertively.

“The BJP had created a different kind of environment. We missed out local issues, which was a big mistake. If they were invoking Prime Minister to garner support, we should have raised national issues like unemployment or price rise,” he said.