Congress discusses LS poll preparedness in Delhi, asks leaders to strengthen party in all 7 seats
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leaders from Delhi on Wednesday held a meeting with the party's top leadership to review the preparedness for the Lok Sabha elections and discussed ways and means to strengthen the organisation in all seven parliamentary constituencies in the national capital.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi, who were present at the meeting, asked party leaders to remain united and connected with the people, sources said.
Delhi Congress president Anil Chaudhary and former Union minister Ajay Maken, who were also present at the meeting, pointed out to the issues relating to a possible alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the sources said.
"In view of the Lok Sabha elections, a consultation was held with the leaders of the Delhi Congress today. Revitalisation of the Delhi Congress is our priority, in which participation of all leaders and workers is necessary. We had made Delhi prosperous and happy, our struggle for the people of Delhi continues even further," Kharge said after the meeting.
Gandhi said in a Facebook post that a meeting of Delhi Congress leaders was held under the chairmanship of Congress president Kharge. "The Congress is dedicated to strengthening the voice of the people of Delhi and ensuring the progress of Delhi," he said.
Later, in a one-on-one meeting, Kharge and Gandhi met senior leaders of the Delhi Congress, including Maken, Chowdhary and Subhash Chopra, to discuss leadership issues in the unit. Chowdhary has completed his tenure as Delhi Congress president and a replacement is expected.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K C Venugopal said on X, "Attended the meeting to review preparations of Delhi PCC (Pradesh Congress Committee) for the Lok Sabha elections, chaired by Sh. Mallikarjun Kharge ji, along with Sh. Rahul Gandhi ji and senior leaders from Delhi." "The (Narendra) Modi-led BJP has proven to be disastrous for Delhi. The people also recall INC's glorious 15-year stint in Delhi during which the city transformed into a modern, vibrant metropolis. We are confident that the people will extend their full support to us in 2024," Venugopal said.
All the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi are currently held by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Delhi Congress chief Chaudhary said it was the Congress which protested against the Delhi liquor policy during 'Pol Khol Yatra' and it led to the arrest of top AAP leaders.
The Congress will always question Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal (also the AAP's national convener) whenever it concerns the safety and protection of the people of Delhi, he said.
"Today's meeting was not on alliance formation in Delhi, nothing was discussed about it. The AAP can make assumptions but decision on alliance will be taken by the AICC central leadership and it will be announced by them. We, as an opposition party here, will raise questions about corruption," he said.
AICC in-charge for Delhi affairs of the Congress Deepak Babaria said Wednesday's meeting was held to discuss the party's strategy for the forthcoming parliamentary elections and all senior leaders and workers were present.
All leaders representing various sections of society put forth their issues and felt that the AAP government is "pushing Delhi behind" after the progress made during the Sheila Dikshit government, he said.
"The Delhi Congress put forth their resolution that the anti-people policies of the Delhi government of AAP would be opposed at the ground level," he said.
Asked whether it was decided with whom will the party form its alliance in Delhi, Babaria said, "We did not discuss that issue in today's meeting. We only discussed on how to strengthen the party in Delhi". He said an alliance, if any in Delhi, will be finalised by the party high command.
"We all decided to oppose the double-engine of both AAP government in Delhi and the BJP government at the Centre," Babaria said. "Whatever promises he (Arvind Kejriwal) has made to people of Delhi, he has not fulfilled, be it on any issues," he alleged.
He said Gandhi and Kharge are senior leaders of the INDIA bloc and they will decide on any possible alliance in the national capital. "We have left our decision on them," Babaria said.
"We have been suffering for the last several years in Delhi and we are preparing for the elections. We will have our own candidates and they will have their own candidates," he said.
The Delhi Congress will continue to raise issues of the people of Delhi, he said, adding that Gandhi has "told us to reach out to the people and stressed on being among the people of Delhi".
Delhi Congress leader Alka Lamba said in the over three-hour meeting, discussions were held on the shortcomings in the organisation and preparations for the Lok Sabha elections. "We have been directed to work strongly in all the seven seats," she said.
"No decision has been taken on whether to have an alliance, but we have been asked to prepare ourselves on all seven seats," she said.
Lamba said "Congress votes have gone to the AAP" and many senior AAP leaders are in jail for corruption. "We have been asked to prepare ourselves on all seven seats and remain strong on all these seats," she told reporters.
The AAP has reacted strongly to the comments made by some Congress leaders claiming that they will contest in all seven seats, saying there is no point of the INDIA alliance if the Congress has decided to contest alone in Delhi in the Lok Sabha polls.
"If the Congress has already decided to not form an alliance with us, then it is of no use for us to attend the next 'INDIA' alliance meeting. Our top leadership will decide whether or not we'll attend the next meeting," AAP leader Priyanka Kakkar said.
Babaria, the AICC in-charge for Delhi affairs of Congress, later said the AAP should understand that there are "attempts to provoke" and the "AAP should not fall in such a trap".
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Not surprised EC gave itself clean chit: Cong slams poll panel on Haryana complaints
Warns ECI of legal action over 'condescending' tone
New Delhi, Nov 1: The Congress on Friday hit out at the Election Commission after it rejected allegations of "irregularities" in Haryana assembly polls, saying if the poll panel's goal is to "strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality", then it is doing a "remarkable job" at creating that impression.
The opposition party claimed that the EC's reply was written in a tone that is condescending and warned that if the poll panel persists with such language then it would have no choice but to seek legal recourse for getting such remarks expunged.
The Congress's response came days after the EC rejected allegations levelled by it over "irregularities" in assembly polls, saying the party was raising "the smoke of a generic doubt" about the credibility of an entire electoral outcome as done in the past.
The Congress said it is not surprised that the ECI has examined its complaints and "given itself a clean chit". The answer given to the question of the machines' fluctuating batteries seeks to confuse rather than clarify, it said.
"At any rate, the ECI reply is nothing more than a standard and generic set of bullets on how the machines function rather than a specific clarification on specific complaints. In short, while our complaints were specific the ECI response is generic and focused on diminishing the complaints and the petitioners," the Congress said.
In its letter to the EC signed by nine senior Congress leaders, including general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh, the party said, "We have carefully studied your response to our complaints. Not surprisingly, the ECI has given a clean chit to itself. We would normally have let it be at that. However, the tone and tenor of the ECI's response, the language used, and the allegations made against the INC compel us to submit the counter-response."
The Congress letter said that if the Commission grants a recognised national party a hearing or examines issues raised by them in good faith it is not an 'exception' or 'indulgence' but it is the performance of a duty required to be done.
"If the Commission is refusing to grant us a hearing or refusing to engage on certain complaints (which it has done in the past) then the law allows recourse to the higher courts' extraordinary jurisdiction to compel the ECI to discharge this function (as happened in 2019)," the letter said.
The Congress leaders, who had petitioned the EC alleging irregularities in the polls, said every reply from the EC now "seems to be laced with ad-hominem attacks" on either individual leaders or the party itself.
"The ECI's reply are written in a tone that is condescending. If the current ECI's goal is to strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality, then it is doing a remarkable job at creating that impression," the party said in its letter to the EC.
"Judges who write decisions do not attack or demonise the party raising the issues. However, if the ECI persists then we shall have no choice but to seek legal recourse to expunge such remarks," said the letter signed by Ramesh, K C Venugopal, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupinder Hooda, Ajay Maken, Abhishek Singhvi, Uday Bhan, Partap Bajwa and Pawan Khera.
They also said that the "pattern" sought to be identified by the ECI in its reply is "disingenuous" as sometimes acting on complaints immediately is the key.
"If they are not redressed on the ground then they become redundant. And then the only remedy available is an Election Petition which is a lengthy process taking years to resolve. Thus, we approach the ECI with whatever information we have, and the ECI with the vast resources at its command, examines and reviews this information to see if the same is correct. Many times, the ECI has found our information to be correct. Other times, not so. But we do not name and shame the ECI for those moments after the Election is over," they said.
The Congress said if they were "bad faith actors", then they would never engage with the ECI to begin with. "We would focus on naming and shaming the Commission with examples from the ECI's own recent history which do not shroud it with glory," it said, adding that they would have never engaged in that case.
The Congress said it has sent over a hundred complaints against the prime minister and home minister, but "the ECI has taken action in precisely zero complaints, while calling our party president and former party president to account for their actions/speeches".
"We would point out how the ECI never published a dissent note, actively suppressing it instead, by a former Commissioner in this regard. We would point out that the ECI has almost always fought any move for transparency and increase in VVPAT verification numbers, with the same having to be ordered by the Supreme Court. We challenge the ECI to fact check the above since it finds the INC's misgivings to be based on phantoms," the Congress said.
In a strongly-worded letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the poll panel had said such "frivolous and unfounded" doubts have the potential of creating "turbulence" when crucial steps like polling and counting are in live play, a time when both public and political parties' anxiousness is peaking.
The BJP retained power in Haryana winning 48 of the 90 seats in the October 5 assembly polls.
