The Congress Is Capable Of Winning It Alone

In December 2013, Sheila Dikshit’s 15-year-old Congress government in Delhi lost an election, winning a meagre eight seats in the 70-member house. Dikshit herself lost to AAP challenger Arvind Kejriwal. In two successive polls—to the 2014 Lok Sabha and the 2015 state assembly—the Congress drew a blank in the capital. As the party looks for a revival in the 2019 general election, the octogenarian ex-CM has been brought back to head the party in Delhi. Dikshit spoke to Kaushik Deka on the party’s prospects and a range of issues:

Will the Congress contest all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi?

Of course, we’re the Congress party. We didn’t come up two years ago; we have a long tradition.

Q. Why are you opposed to an alliance with AAP? Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been talking of a united opposition fighting against the BJP.

Every state has a different political situation. What may work for West Bengal may not work for Tamil Nadu. In Delhi, we are confident of going it alone.

Q. How will you convince Delhi voters to vote for the Congress?

We will remind them of the Congress’ history of performance. The Congress brought the metro, new buses, the roads became wider, flyovers were built. What have AAP, which is running the Delhi government, and the BJP, which controls the municipal corporations, done? They have even failed to maintain what we’d built.