New Delhi: Politically marginalized Congress in the national capital is trying to regain lost ground in the upcoming elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). The MCD elections are due on December 3 and the Congress has lined up state leaders to campaign for the party.
The list accessed by ThePrint includes Rajasthan leader Sachin Pilot, former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Uttar Pradesh MLA Aradhana Mishra, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Waring and popular student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union. Are included.
Congress general secretaries Ajay Maken and Arvinder Singh Lovely, who earlier headed the party’s Delhi unit, will also campaign, as will Dr Ajoy Kumar, who has replaced Shaktisinh Gohil as the party’s Delhi in-charge. They are busy with the Gujarat elections to be held next month.
The Congress enjoyed a strong hold on the civic body of the national capital till 2007, but its seat share has been declining since then.
It was the Congress government in Delhi led by former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, which trifurcated in MCD, North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) in 2012. there were three reintegrated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Center earlier this year.
Speaking to ThePrint, Dikshit’s son and former MP, Sandeep Dikshit, said that the MCD under the Congress treated the Delhi government run by his mother as an “opposition government”. Sandeep is one of the star campaigners of the party for the upcoming elections.
“When Mrs Dikshit was the chief minister and the Congress leadership was in charge of the MCD, the entire Congress leadership in the MCD was against her. So, it was almost like an opposition government. In fact, she (Sheila Dikshit) got more support when the MCD was run by the BJP. She used to get the work done through the officers. He worked through his ability to connect people with him,” Sandeep said.
He said: “In the seven-eight years (between 2007 and 2013) when the BJP was running the MCD with him as chief minister, there was never any major issue. I remember, there would be a (BJP-led MCD) delegation outside the chief minister’s house, they would protest, there would be a lot of hue and cry, but once they were inside, we all would have a nice meeting and give the MCD What do you want? Dikshit said she does not do politics when it comes to issues of governance.
In contrast, he claimed, the current chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, “only does politics”.
The Congress was in power in the former MCD until 2007, having won landslide victories in the 2002 and 1997 elections. However, after 2007, due to infighting between the Sheila Dikshit government (with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit) and the Congress leadership in the MCD, the party’s seat share began to shrink, allowing the BJP to gain ground and win. 2007 MCD Elections.
Though never confirmed, it is widely believed that it was this rift between the Dixit government and the MCD (irrespective of party colour) that led the former chief minister to make two changes to the MCD law. The first was limiting the mayor’s terms to a period of one year and the second, trifurcation, allegedly to ensure that his control over the administration in the national capital was not challenged.
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lose relevance
In 2007, the Congress had won 69 of the 272 MCD seats. In 2012, after the MCD was split into three separate bodies, it won 77 out of 272 seats in the three municipalities. Its numbers came down to just 31 in the next election in 2017.
For the last 15 years, the party has gone to the margins.
This year’s fight seems to be between the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party, with the Congress being seen as a “bit player”. Even BJP has not bothered to include Congress in its campaign song For elections, where it directly targets AAP.
Meanwhile, the Congress is trying to impress its star campaigners. On Sunday, the party also released a list of 250 candidates for the upcoming elections.
Speaking to ThePrint, Ajay Kumar said the list of star campaigners includes leaders with local connections and the party will fight the elections on local issues.
“Others are people who have connections with Delhi or who have spent time in Delhi. For example, Bhupinder Hooda is a leader from Haryana, but people in Delhi know him well. Sachin has also spent time in Delhi in a similar way. People want to see those faces. The national leaders who are campaigning either live in Delhi or have been politically responsible in Delhi at some point of time,” Kumar said.
He said: “We are trying to get the entire spectrum of Congress leaders from all social classes and all religions, because this is the Congress. We also want to give an all-India perspective to the elections. Our opponents keep saying ‘double engine’ (BJP is a phrase used for states where it is in power apart from the Centre) but we have to fight on local issues.
Kumar further said, “We are fighting malaria, chikungunya, dengue with the world’s most corrupt department and also fighting a polluted party which has made Delhi the most polluted city in the whole world.”
mcd power play
Talking about the bifurcation of the MCD in 2011, Sandeep said that the Delhi government at that time felt that the MCD was becoming a “giants”, as a result of which it was unable to perform its duties effectively.
“Smt. (Sheila) Dikshit had constituted a committee consisting of a former Chief Secretary and some other senior people to consider the reforms that the MCD needed. They said that the MCD was becoming a giant and it It is very difficult to manage. The MCD is something that looks into people’s homes, so how can a body like a government control an entire area?” Sandeep said.
He said: “They (the committee) basically came up with the idea of bifurcating the MCD into three different bodies. There was also a detailed plan to facilitate cross-financing and sharing of people and other kinds of resources . It will be like five district governments in one state. Unfortunately, due to politics and other things, the final decision was to go with three bodies.”
The former MP blamed the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi for the alleged destruction of resource-sharing on the part of the state and lack of long-term commitment to the MCD.
“He treated the MCD like a step-child. He should have intervened and ensured that all the three municipal organizations have enough cash. Mrs Dixit’s idea was based on the sensitivity of resource sharing, the government proposed a common resource pool for all the three institutions. This can never happen. An idea that was good in creation is destroyed by the fact that its most positive elements never became part of the implemented idea.”
Asked about the declining importance of the Congress in Delhi’s urban local government, Sandeep said the change in the party’s fortunes began in 2012-13, the last years of the Congress-led UPA 2 government at the Centre.
“There was the whole anti-corruption movement, 4G, 3G, Commonwealth, Nirbhaya etc, which were issues against the UPA-led central government, but also reflected on the Delhi government, both from the same party. So, we had to face a double whammy and the perception about the party hit the ground running,” he said.
Sandeep also argued that while this perception was being created, the Congress – both at the Center and in Delhi – did not do enough to publicize its work. Dikshit’s term as chief minister ended in 2013.
“We did not learn then that media can be used to change public perception. Mrs. Dixit always used to say that she has built Delhi by 2028. Whatever you talk about now, Be it healthcare, education or even environmental measures, were established long ago by the Congress. I would blame the leaders of my generation for not successfully taking that message to the masses”, he said.
Sandeep said, ‘My own understanding is that the Congress has to enter this election with a unique, positive agenda. There are two-three very important issues like corruption in construction and the fact that MCD is not able to perform small duties like keeping areas clean, keeping encroachments away and not allowing unnecessary traffic jams. I think our agenda should provide a very clear alternative to these issues.
On the double engine bid by both BJP and AAP (Centre-MCD vs State-MCD), he said “there is only so much politics” that the MCD can do against the Delhi government.
“Delhi government can stop funds, Delhi government can withdraw permission, Delhi government is big brother. The problem with Kejriwal is that he does politics on everything. In such a situation, if BJP wins the MCD elections, he will do politics again, but it does not matter. You have to give them money from MCD fund. Ultimately you have to allow them what they want. If the government and the MCD work together, obviously things happen faster. But to say that they will work only when the party is in power both in the government and in the MCD is just blackmailing,” Sandeep said.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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