President of the Delhi Congress, Devender Yadav.
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
Amid dwindling electoral fortunes in Delhi, the Congress’ city unit chief Devender Yadav sees signs of a revival. Leading the month-long Dilli Nyay Yatra across the capital, he claims voters are ready to give his party another chance. Excerpts from an interview:.
What is the purpose of the yatra and what response are you getting from the people?
The purpose of the yatra is simply: to connect with the people, go to them, meet them in their homes, in their localities and understand their issues and aspirations. Wherever we go, we are getting tremendous love and affection from the people. They fondly recall the good old days when the Congress was in power.
Since 2015, the Congress has failed to win a single seat in the Assembly and lost its support base completely to the AAP. Your comments?
It will be like 2015, when the people had made up their minds to bring about a change. It can happen all of a sudden. It is true that we have not won a single seat in the last 10 years or our vote share has gone down considerably, but we are now pretty much in the picture and the people are ready to give us a chance.
Can the Congress make a comeback in this election?
The BJP has had a stable support base in Delhi, which backs the party on the basis of its traditional poll planks, most notably Hindutva. Our support base had shifted to the AAP, but Arvind Kejriwal and his party stand exposed. They projected themselves as an honest party. But they are now exposed. Their credibility is finished.
Who is your main rival in the election, the AAP or the BJP?
Our effort is to expose both the parties for their lies, for their politics of deceit and for their failure to provide Delhi with good governance. The AAP talks about its welfare measures or ‘Revdis’ as it proudly calls them. But the delivery of the measures on the ground leaves a lot to be desired. The AAP and the BJP have been in a constant state of confrontation in Delhi, which has badly affected governance. If the AAP government has not delivered, the Lieutenant Governor, who has wide-ranging powers in Delhi, has also not done his bit.
Both the AAP and the BJP are projecting this election as a direct fight between the two.
It suits the two parties to talk about the election as a fight between the AAP and the BJP. The AAP is in fact worried about losing ground to the Congress. The BJP may be thinking it is better strategy to keep hitting out at the incumbent. However, both the parties know that the Congress is very much a force to reckon with.
The Congress and the AAP were allies in the Lok Sabha election. Is there any possibility of the two parties coming together for the Assembly election?
Of course not. We will not get into any tie-up with the AAP for this election. We did have a seat-sharing arrangement with the AAP in the Lok Sabha election, but that was because of compulsions of forming a coalition at the national level. The anti-incumbency against the AAP government in Delhi affected our performance.
Several leaders and former MLAs have quit the Congress and joined either the AAP or the BJP.
Some opportunistic leaders have left us. They knew they will not be given tickets in the Congress. Their exit will have no impact on the Congress’ prospects in the election. Many leaders have joined the Congress too.
Will the Congress project a Chief Ministerial face in the election as an alternative to Arvind Kejriwal?
At this juncture, there is no plan of projecting a Chief Ministerial face. Closer to the election, the party leadership will decide on this depending on the political scenario.