Two days after the Delhi Assembly Election results, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has compared Congress’s drubbing in the polls to the spread of the coronavirus.
“It is an unmitigated disaster like coronavirus for the Congress,” PTI quoted the former minister as saying.
The Congress failed to get leads, let alone win, in a single seat in Delhi this time around. In 2015 too, the Congress had won zero seats. In 2013, the Congress had won 8 seats.
Only three of its candidates — Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar, Devender Yadav from Badli and Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar — managed to save their deposits.
This was after Sheila Dikshit had been chief minister of the capital for 15 years in a row.
“Congress leaders have to reinvent themselves. The party has to reinvent itself if it has to be relevant. Otherwise, we are staring at irrelevance. Our arrogance has to go, even after six years out of power sometimes, some of us behave as if we are still ministers,” Ramesh said.
The retrospect comes after the Congress was seen celebrating BJP’s defeat in the Delhi polls on counting day, seemingly not giving thought to their role in the polls.
While Congress bigwigs like P Chidambaram were celebrating “the defeat of polarising forces”, it was Sharmishtha Mukherjee who conceded that the Congress had been defeated. “We r again decimated in Delhi.Enuf of introspection, time 4 action now. Inordinate delay in decision making at the top, lack of strategy & unity at state level, demotivated workers, no grassroots connect-all r factors.Being part of d system, I too take my share of responsibility,” she said in a tweet.
While the top leadership congratulated AAP and Arvind Kejriwal for their resounding victory, they have so far failed to comment on their own performance in the polls.
(With PTI inputs)