By announcing his campaigning schedule for Delhi Assembly elections, Rahul Gandhi has blown the bugle of open rebellion against the parties of the I.N.D.I. Alliance. According to reports, Rahul Gandhi had gone abroad for a long vacation to celebrate the New Year. Is Rahul Gandhi holding the election rally in Seelampur in Delhi to divert attention from his foreign tour at the crucial timing of Delhi Assembly election?
Countering Mercurial Allies
Secondly, Rahul Gandhi now wants to make his stand clear to counter all the parties of the Alliance. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress Party are well aware of the fact that the allies of the I.N.D.I. Alliance have now made up their mind of not accepting Rahul Gandhi and the Congress Party as the leader of the alliance. So now Rahul Gandhi wants to counter them. Many parties of the I.N.D.I. Alliance like the Samajwadi Party of Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT), Hanuman Beniwal’s Rashtriya Loktantrik Party of Rajasthan and many other parties have forced the Congress party to the corner. They have accomplished this by supporting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at the cost of the Congress party in Delhi Assembly election. So far, no party of the I.N.D.I. Alliance has come out in support of the Congress Party . Even Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, a trusted ally of Sonia Gandhi and the Congress Party, is also silent on the issue of supporting the Congress for Delhi Assembly election.
Wooing Minority Voters
An important aspect of Rahul Gandhi’s rally is the selection of venue. Rahul Gandhi is holding his first rally for the Delhi Assembly elections in Seelampur area. This area is a Muslim-dominated area. The selection of this venue has cleared that the entire target as of now of Rahul Gandhi and the Congress Party is to attract Muslim voters. Also, the Congress Party is confident that in the coming days it will be successful in attracting Muslim voters. There are multiple such indications including the result of Dhubri LS seat in Assam, Dhule Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra and the result of Sagardighi Assembly seat in Murshidabad district of West Bengal in 2023, which raise the hope that Muslims are now again gravitating towards the Congress.
With Seelampur Assembly seat being the Muslim-dominated, the Congress Party has a good chance on this seat. The number of Muslim voters on this seat is approximately 50 per cent. No other seat in Delhi has so many Muslim voters as that of Seelampur. After the Seelampur Assembly seat, Matia Mahal seat has the highest concentration of Muslim voters having 49 per cent. The Aam Aadmi Party’s MLA in the just dissolved Assembly Abdul Rehman is now the Congress party candidate on Seelampur Assembly seat. Though the Congress Party forfeited its deposit on this seat in the previous Assembly election, the main strength of the Congress party on the seat is the candidature of Abdul Rehman.Therefore, the Congress party hopes that its performance on this seat will improve. The Congress party will promote the good performance on this seat of the Congress by linking it with the campaigning of Rahul Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi and the Congress Party are well aware of the fact that the allies of the I.N.D.I. Alliance have now made up their mind of not accepting Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party as the leader of the alliance
In the past too, the Congress party has performed well on this seat. From 2003 to 2013, Chaudhary Mateen Ahmed of the Congress party won this seat for three consecutive terms by taking nearly 50 percent of the votes.In the Lok Sabha election, the Congress party had taken lead on this Assembly segment though at that time the Congress was in alliance with the AAP. Kanhaiya Kumar had taken lead in the Lok Sabha election on this Assembly seat in the North East Lok Sabha constituency of Delhi.
In the coming days, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi can be seen campaigning in Delhi but their focus will be on Muslim-dominated seats like Ballimaran, Babarpur, Gokulpuri, Okhla, Seelampur, Matia Mahal, Babarpur, Chandni Chowk, and Mustafabad Assembly seats.
The Congress Party is confident that it may open its account in the Delhi Assembly election this time. The Congress did not open its account in the last three consecutive Lok Sabha elections and two consecutive Assembly elections. The Congress is also hopeful of increasing its vote share this time than previous Assembly elections. Delhi is among those five States or Union Territory where the Congress party does not have even a single MLA. Apart from Delhi, these States are West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland and Sikkim.
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