After complete rout, Congress scurries for ways to claw back

WAY OUT Party workers say new leaders needed in Delhi to regain the trust it has lost SHRINKING BASE

NEW DELHI: Four back-to-back crushing defeats in last three years have forced the Congress to rethink its strategy to remain relevant in Delhi’s electoral politics.

Senior party leaders accepted that they not only have to establish a reconnect with the electorate and get in sync with their aspirations, but also they need to identify a new set of leaders and nurture them to face the tough political battle in the Capital which is not bipolar anymore.

“With the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party, Delhi’s political turf has completely changed. We need to get new innovative ideas to connect with the people of Delhi which should be realistic and can be easily implemented,” said a senior Delhi congress leader, requesting anonymity.

Though the Congress promised to give tickets to new and young leaders in the MCD polls in 2012 and assembly polls in 2013 and 2015, the party relied on old and tested faces to revive its fortunes. However, the party was handed out debilitating defeats in both elections. In 2013, most senior leaders were defeated in their own bastions by unknown and younger candidates of the Aam Aadmi Party. The party fielded the same candidates once again in 2015 who met the same fate.

“We have realised that it is not easy to win back people’s trust. We need young and inspiring leaders preferably from the underprivileged areas — slums, resettlement colonies, JJ clusters and unauthorised colonies — whom the electorate can identify itself with,” a senior leader said.

The views were echoed by former east Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit in an interview to news SENIOR CONGRESS LEADER 2008 2012 2013 2014 2015 agency PTI a few days ago.

“What is very important is to bring new people into Congress. We have almost 50 per cent deadwood in senior Congress and 70 per cent in Youth Congress and NSUI,” Dikshit told PTI.

“You cannot identify with the poor wearing a Ray Ban glass. Congress will have to identify its best leaders and ideas, peoples’ issues rather than party issues. What is very-very important is to bring new people into Congress,” Dikshit added.

Sources added that a complete overhaul in the organization setup at the block, district and state level is also on the cards. The state leadership had dissolved the district and the block committees a few months before the elections, which were never re-constituted.

“It is these panels that work as a conduit between the senior party leadership and grassroots workers and public. The office bearers at the block and district level communicate with the masses and tell them about the party’s ideologies, policies and views on issues. This set up is required immediately,” a party functionary said.