Delhi Congress going into election with interim president and ad hoc party set-up

The Delhi Congress unit is still struggling to retrieve its long-lost political and social base in the national capital, where it used to be a dominant force until its last government, headed by 'hatrack-CM' Sheila Dikshit, was voted out in 2013. The state of the Delhi Congress has been well demonstrated this time as it is poised to face the assembly elections with an ad hoc organisational setup with an 'interim" PCC president.

The Delhi Congress, which failed to open its account in the last two assembly polls, is currently headed by 'interim' PCC president Devender Yadav, a post in which he remains since he was appointed after the then PCC president Arvinder Singh Lovely defected to BJP during the last LS polls. Yadav also has a second post, as AICC in-charge of Punjab, thus making him a 'neither there-nor-here' case to many Delhi Congressmen.

The PCC and district committees are long due for reconstitution, they point out. If reviving Delhi Congress and preparing it to fight the poll is considered to be a tough task, the central leadership has chosen Qazi Mohd Nizamuddin as AICC in-charge here, his debut as in-charge of any state while Meenakshi Natarajan has been made chairman of the screening committee to shortlist party candidates. "The state of Delhi Congress organisation and the choices made to oversee it in this poll season is a perfect example of AICC's outlook on organisational matters," said a Delhi Congress leader who has been an MLA and lost all subsequent assembly elections.


The Delhi Congress, which had an unproductive alliance with AAP (in the name of INDIA bloc) in the last LS polls, is now trying to find the elusive luck by betting on 'Karnataka model' guarantees to try and woo back sections of the old social base.