In Delhi Congress freefall, Congress leader Chacko clutches at Sheila Dikshit legacy

Delhi Congress chief PC Chakho has remarked that the downfall of Congress in Delhi began in 2013, when Sheila Dikshit was the Chief Minister. He added that the entire vote bank of Congress has been taken away by Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

After the Congress returned zero MLAs for the second time in a Delhi Assembly election, the long knives are out to carve up everyone and anyone in the blamegame for its dismal performance at the hustings. If hale and hearty leaders are not enough, some Congress leaders like PC Chacko have attacked deceased former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit for leaving conditions ripe in the city for the rise of the Aam Aadmi Party, which won its 3rd Assembly election on Tuesday.

P C Chacko, Delhi Congress in-charge, told ANI that the party’s downfall in Delhi started during the tenure of Sheila Dikshit. The entire vote bank of Congress has been taken away by Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party and they failed to get it back.

Dikshit’s son Sandeep Dikshit, the former East Delhi Lok Sabha MP, said some leaders in the party have been blaming her for quite sometime but trying to use her work for their electoral gain. Chacko’s remark has not gone down well with other members of the party as well. Milind Deora, former Mumbai Congress chief and former Union Minister, slammed Chacko, saying Dikshit was a remarkable politician, who transformed Delhi and made it stronger than ever during her tenure. Furthermore, the politician dedicated her life to the party and the people of Delhi.

Delhi PCC chief Subhash Chopra and Chacko have resigned from their posts after the reverse. Similarly, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram was attacked for hailing AAP’s victory over the BJP instead of helping the Congress gain a respectable number of MLAs.

Sanjay Jha, Congress’s national spokesperson, also condemned Chacko by saying that they should be a vote-winning party and not a vote-cutting party. Dikshit brought about a drastic transformation in Delhi single-handedly and they haven’t been able to do justice to her legacy, he said.

The Delhi Assembly Election 2020 Results were declared on February 11, in which the Congress party failed to open its account, BJP secured 8 seats and AAP secured 62 seats. Reports also say that the party has also failed to save the deposits in 63 of 66 contested seats. The only candidates who managed to save their deposits were Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar, Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar and Devender Yadav from Badli.