Sheila Dikshit blames Ajay Maken for Delhi poll performance; Congress disagrees

NEW DELHI: Factional fight returned to Delhi Congress, 48 hours after its humiliating defeat. Senior party leader and former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Thursday lashed out Ajay Maken who replaced her as the face of Delhi Congress, where the party failed to open its account.

Betraying her dislike for Maken, once blue-eyed boy in her cabinet before they fell out over clash of ambitions, Dikshit said Maken’s style failed and that she pitied him. “The signals that went from the Congress party did not inspire confidence. Although we didn’t realise that we won’t get even a single seat, it was clear from the beginning that we would lose badly.

What can I say about Ajay Maken, except that I pity him,” Dikshit told media. “He ( Maken) got the leadership and he took it... but quite obviously his style did not help the Congress,” she added. Targeting Maken’s role as the chairman of the Congress campaign committee, Dikshit added, “Ajay Maken was the chairman of the campaign committee; the campaign should have been aggressive.

That was a lack in our strategy, maybe in totality Congress was demoralised,” Dikshit said. There was no immediate response from Maken. Congress had come down to eight seats in 2013 elections fought under Dikshit and then to zero in this polls, held 13 months later under Maken.