NEW DELHI: Forced into introspection after being humbled in the Lok Sabha elections, the Delhi Congress may go in for an overhaul. As part of the likely sweeping changes, the state leadership may replace all its district and block-level leaders. A decision in this regard is likely to be taken soon after the five-member committee, which was formed to look into the causes for the party’s defeat in seven parliamentary constituencies in Delhi, tenders its report, said a senior Congress leader privy to the development.
The committee met on Thursday and took feedback from seven district presidents and two MP candidates, said a committee member and former Delhi minister Yoganand Shastri.“Everyone, from our candidates to workers, is shocked and surprised by the elections results. We didn’t expect a complete rout, as we were getting good response from the people,” he said.
Rattled by the party’s loss, Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit formed the panel comprising four senior Delhi Congress leaders and Congress national spokesperson Pawan Khera, who was the political advisor to Dikshit during her tenure as the chief minister. The committee, put together on Monday, for an in-depth probe into the reasons for Congress’ humiliating defeat, was given 10 days to prepare a report.
The committee also comprises former MP Parvez Hashmi, former Delhi health minister AK Walia, Shastri, national spokesperson Pawan Khera and former MLA Jaikishan.The party lost to BJP on all seven parliamentary seats by huge margins. Ace boxer and the party’s South Delhi candidate Vijender Singh even lost his security deposit.The first meeting of the panel was scheduled on Wednesday. However, it was postponed to Thursday, as the majority of Congres’ Lok Sabha candidates did not turn up for the meet.
Dikshit was trounced by her BJP counterpart Manoj Tiwari on the North-East Delhi seat by 3.66 lakh votes.
Shastri said that the committee will meet on Saturday again to get feedback on other party candidates.
“Today, we received some very important suggestions to improve our performance in the forthcoming Assembly elections. We will also meet block presidents before submitting our report to Delhi Congress president,” he said.A senior Delhi Congress leader said that once the panel files its report, major changes are likely in the party unit.
“The committee is assessing role of party leaders, including the district presidents and other office bearers, some of whom may face the axe for contributing to party’s defeat in the polls. The committee meeting on Thursday continued for four hours. Discussions were held with seven district presidents, Rajesh Lilothia, the party’s North-West Delhi candidate, and Singh,” he said.Dikshit could not attend the meeting due to her pressing engagements but she had already talked to a panel member on Wednesday, the party leader said.
“New Delhi candidate Ajay Maken and Arvinder Singh Lovely, who contested from East Delhi, could not attend the meeting as they were out of the city. Chandni Chowk nominee Jai Prakash Agarwal couldn’t make it as well,” Shastri said.The Congress, which improved on its performance after the humiliating defeat in 2015, could only bag 22.5% of the total votes polled. The only silver lining is that the AAP’s vote share was even lower at 18.1%. The BJP got over 56% votes, which was more than the combined share of the Congress and AAP.
In 2015, the Congress slipped to the third position, with a vote share of 9.7%. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, the Congress’ vote share stood at 57.11%. However, it dropped to 15.10% in 2014. However, its vote share went up to around 26% in the 2017 civic polls.