Gandhi must look for ways to reclaim space lost to AAP

It may be difficult to remember this now, but the Congress governed Delhi for three straight terms — until 2013. The erosion in the party’s strength — it lost all seven seats in both 2014 and 2019 elections, failed to win a single seat in the 2015 assembly polls, and has failed to do so yet again — is a classic case study of how once dominant political forces can witness a sharp decline in the absence of a local leader, depleted social base, and failure to articulate an agenda that appeals to citizens.

Rahul Gandhi, who is admittedly no longer the party president but remains its key leader, campaigned in the last lap of the Delhi polls. It did not yield any success, which will once again raise questions about his connect with the electorate. Any recent success the Congress has had has not been due to the

Gandhi family. In Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda put up a credible performance; in Maharashtra, Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party led the charge; in Jharkhand, it was Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s Hemant Soren who was the face of the alliance. Put it together, and the Delhi election reinforces the pattern of Gandhi’s limited impact and appeal, and the continued crisis of the Congress.

It may be happy at the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) defeat, but it should worry that it has ceded space to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Capital — a party that may once again seek to displace Congress from states where it is in direct contest with the BJP.