The campaign for the assembly elections in Delhi is over, now everyone is waiting for the voting of 5 February. All three major parties Aam Aadmi Party, BJP and Congress have campaigned fiercely and the results of February 8 will decide the riot of Delhi. But 12 out of 70 seats in Delhi are such where the ruling AAP is not seen challenging the Congress but the Congress is directly contesting and there is a direct contest between the two parties here. Out of the total seats, the Congress has focused on 30 seats so that the lost support base in Delhi can be returned.
Congress made a special strategy
The Congress, which was not able to open an account in the 2015 and 2020 assembly elections in Delhi, campaigned with new enthusiasm and enthusiasm in the 2025 assembly elections. The Congress has introduced itself as a challenge for the AAP, not for the BJP which was the only opposition party in the Delhi Legislative Assembly for the last two terms. Congress leaders are targeting AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal and his comrades. In this way, the election contest in most seats in Delhi seems to be triangular.
There are some seats in the capital where there is a direct fight between AAP and Congress. The Congress, which has lost land in Delhi, has strategically contested 25-30 seats in focus. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also campaigned on Dalit and Muslim dominated seats and insisted on issues like reservation with the Constitution in these rallies. Rahul Gandhi also went to the areas affected by the Delhi riots in 2020 so that Dalit-Muslim voters could be brought into their court. This class was once considered the traditional vote bank of the Congress and now through these the party is trying to challenge AAP, which has a lot of impact on 12 seats in Delhi. It can be interesting to see two parties of India block fighting for the same vote bank.
Rahul held the first rally in Seilampur
Rahul Gandhi also gave a clear message by holding his first election rally in Seilampur, Delhi. This seat in North East region has 57 percent Muslim voters and earlier it was a Congress stronghold. However, the Aam Aadmi Party won here in both 2015 and 2020 elections. Chaudhary Zubair Ahmed of AAP is contesting against Congress candidate Abdul Rahman in Seelampur. Abdul Rahman is the current MLA from this seat who has held the Congress’s hand just before the election.
Rahul Gandhi’s rally in Delhi was named ‘Jai Bhima Jai ​​Constitution’, which tried to break into the Dalit vote bank. Similarly, the Congress has continuously emerged as the main rival of AAP on Muslim dominated seats. These include seats like Matia Mahal, Ballimaran (50%), Okhla (52%) and Chandni Chowk (30%) with 60 percent Muslim voters. Similarly, the Congress is putting full emphasis on reserved seats like Sultanpuri and Seemapuri.
Battle to save existence for Congress
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi also held a challenge rally in Seemapuri on Sunday, where he had targeted him while comparing Arvind Kejriwal to PM Narendra Modi. The Congress is contesting firmly on the seats of outer Delhi like Badli, Sultanpur Majra, Babarpur and Mustafabad. Overseas laborers, Muslim and Dalit voters have a lot of influence in these seats. For this reason, during campaigning in these seats, Rahul Gandhi made sharp attacks on AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal. The Congress knows that this battle to save existence will have to be imposed because the party ruled the capital continuously for 15 years.
Ever since the Aam Aadmi Party has jumped into Delhi’s electoral politics in the year 2013, the price has been getting electoral for the Congress. In the 2013 elections, AAP got 30 percent of the votes, while the Congress vote share fell to 25 percent. This decline continued even further and in 2015 the Congress got only 9.7 percent of the votes. After this, the Congress has gone into the trough and the party, which was holding power for 15 years continuously, got only 4.3 percent of the votes in 2020.
AAP’s rise in Delhi became a challenge
Along with the rise of the common man, there was a steady decline in the vote share of the Congress in Delhi. With 54.3 per cent in 2015 and 53.5 per cent in 2020, AAP secured more than 50 per cent votes in two consecutive elections. But this time, in an atmosphere of anti-incumbency and corruption accusation on the ruling AAP, the Congress is looking for a chance for itself among the Dalit-Muslim voters. Statistics are witnesses that the Congress has been out of power in Delhi for the last 10 years, yet it is reaching its core vote bank and wants to regain support.