Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, too, on Sunday endorsed the AAP by saying a victory for the party in Delhi polls will be a win for the agenda of development.
Rajya Sabha MP KTS Tulsi said on Sunday, a day after most exit polls predicted a landslide win for Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi assembly elections, that the Congress may have deliberately conceded ground to the AAP in order to defeat the BJP.
Tulsi’s comments follow projections of a dismal showing for the Congress by almost all exit polls that said the grand old party of Indian politics, which once ruled the national capital for 15 consecutive years, was likely to end up with less than five seats in the 70-member assembly after the results for the 2020 polls are declared.
“Congress seems to have made a sacrifice for preventing the splitting up of votes which would have resulted in a victory for BJP. If Congress had also equally applied force in campaign process, it would have resulted in BJP winning,” Tulsi was quoted as saying by news agency, the ANI.
It is often argued by several poll analysts that the AAP’s appeal now extends to what is traditionally believed to be the Congress vote bank– the poor and the Muslim community. A division of these votes between AAP and Congress could work to the advantage of the BJP, they have often said.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, too, on Sunday endorsed the AAP by saying a victory for the party in Delhi polls will be a win for the agenda of development.
“If Kejriwal wins, then it will be a victory of the developmental agendas,” Chowdhury told ANI.
However, he said the Congress “fought this election with all our strength”, which belies the suggestion that the party could have deliberately ceded ground to AAP to defeat the BJP.
The Congress leader added that if BJP loses the Delhi Assembly elections, the communal agenda will also end with the party’s defeat.
“BJP brought all its leaders here and kept shouting ‘Shaheen Bagh’ and on the other hand, Arvind Kejriwal kept saying–Mohalla Clinic and spoke about other works as well. Congress tried to convey a message that long-term development was witnessed during the term of former Delhi CM Shiela Dixit,” he added.
All the exit polls have predicted a two-thirds majority for Kejriwal’s AAP with some giving it even a three-fourth majority. They have projected a range of 2-26 seats for the BJP.
The AAP had registered a landslide victory in 2015 elections getting 67 of 70 seats. The BJP had won three seats while Congress had failed to open its account.
Prasanta Patnaik