E-Paper
When arithmetic trips chemistry
Dissonance in Delhi Congress reflects the complicated nature of building alliances
The resignation of Arvinder Singh Lovely as Delhi Congress chief days ahead of polling is bad optics for the INDIA bloc. The delay on the part of the Congress in finalising candidates for its share of three seats in the national Capital had hinted at the unease within the party. But beyond the bitterness among local leaders over their failure to land a seat, there are deeper undercurrents triggered by the contradictions in the alliance. Lovely, in fact, spoke about them to explain his decision. Such friction is inevitable when arithmetic overrides chemistry in the making of an alliance. Lovely told reporters that the Congress’s Delhi unit was uncomfortable with the alliance, which was forced on it by the central leadership.
The AAP was built a decade ago on the debris of the Delhi Congress — the former ran for office by demonising the party that had been in office in Delhi for three consecutive terms. Congress leaders now eyeing the opening of the political space in Delhi following AAP leaders being embroiled in alleged corruption scandals and their subsequent arrests, are discomfited by the push from the top to yield space to the same party they were fighting an existential battle against. In Punjab, the state unit held out against a similar alliance — the Congress could not have embraced the ruling AAP when it is the chief opposition in the state. Interestingly, Delhi’s poll data for the 2019 general elections reveals a different story — the Congress is a distant third force, and together, the parties lack the numbers to bridge the gap in votes between the winners and runners-up in the seven parliamentary constituencies in 2019.
