CONGRESS PREPARES FOR DEFEAT IN DELHI

After failing to secure even a single seat in the last two Delhi Assembly elections, the Congress appears to be on the threshold of achieving a hat-trick of sorts.

- PANKAJ vo HRA

The appointment of a new general secretary in-charge of the city, as well as the declaration of three names for the screening committee indicate that the grand old party, once a force to reckon with in the capital, is preparing to lose the battle even before it has begun.

As it is, the earlier in-charge, Deepak Babaria (who was also the prabhari for Haryana) was a disaster, having scant knowledge of the issues. The new appointee, Qazi Mohammad Nizamuddin, is also being widely regarded in political circles as a wrong choice. He is to be assisted by Imran Masood, Meenakshi Natrajan and Pradeep Narwal.

While it is the prerogative of any party's leadership to nominate anyone of their choice for any specific assignment, the decision has not gone down well with the rank and file of the Congress, or whatever is left of it, after two major drubbings in the past two elections. Firstly, when the battle is with the BJP and the Congress has to erase the impression that it was an outfit which was tilting towards the minorities, having two Muslims in key positions, is obviously a folly.

It is certainly not to suggest that these two gentlemen are less committed to the ideology than any of their colleagues. It is only to point out that strategically, it is a wrong move. Otherwise also the Muslims had voted for the Congress in the recent Parliamentary elections, so what was the High Command wanting to achieve with these politically incorrect optics.