We fought a better election than 2020: Delhi Cong chief

Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav reflects on the party's assembly poll performance, acknowledging zero wins but a 2% vote share increase.

Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav spoke to HT about his party’s performance in the Delhi assembly polls, the INDIA bloc, and the road ahead. Edited excerpts:

Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav. (Congress - X)

Congress has won zero seats in Delhi for the third assembly election in a row.

Yes, we have not been able to secure any seat, but I would say that we fought a better election compared to last time [2020]. We fought against a lot of odds, pretty much built the party from scratch with a new cadre, and have managed to also increase our overall vote share by 2%. This is not an absolute loss. I feel that the people also saw our presence on the ground and saw this election as a triangular fight.

What went wrong with the Congress’s strategy?

I feel that people started seeing Congress as a credible alternative since our Nyay Yatra in December, which was hugely popular. If we began running similar ground campaigns at an earlier stage, it would have instilled more confidence among voters — that the Congress can come to power.

The Dalits, backward classes, and minorities, who are natural voters of the Congress, chose to vote for the AAP as they were not confident that Congress will be able to form the government. If you see the seat share of AAP, they have won eight Dalit seats, four minority seats, and another four seats that have minority voters in large numbers. If this group saw that the AAP was losing, our vote share could have gone up to 25-28%. However, we are still fighting the battle and they know now that we are their strong voice.

Isn’t this loss disheartening for the party workers and supporters?

I don’t see it that way. In fact, the 2% increase in our vote share is the vote won by the cadre. They have newfound confidence in the party… We have only strengthened our party this time, and will definitely work towards better performance next time.

Several INDIA bloc partners supported the AAP, and after the results, questioned the Congress’s decision to contest alone. Do you think the Congress should have contested along with the AAP?

The INDIA bloc was an alliance during the Lok Sabha elections, which played its role and helped the parties win several seats. However, since then, across states, the constituent parties have been contesting separately, such as in Haryana [October 2024]. Both parties [the Congress and AAP] decided that they would contest the elections on their own, and we did our best.

To our alliance partners in other states, I have repeatedly said that they should come to Delhi and see the civic mess that [AAP convener Arvind] Kejriwal has created. The roads, water, sewer, corruption, and the situation of the Yamuna are all issues that people were fed up with. If the people were happy with the AAP’s performance, they would not have ousted them. And now that they have lost majority in the House, we are hopeful that our core voters will gravitate to us again.

What is the plan for the Congress in Delhi? Do you think a revival is possible?

We were actually building a foundation this time... However, from the outside, the foundation is underground and invisible. Now that we have a foundation, every new brick added to this foundation will count. Over the next few years, we will continue to raise the issues of the people, just as a vocal and strong opposition should.