0, 0, 0: Cong betters vote share but can't win a seat

The Indian National Congress, which won no seats in Delhi for the third consecutive time in an assembly election, could perhaps take solace from the fact that its vote share has increased marginally, from 4.3% in 2020 to 6.34% this time, and that it successfully played spoiler in 19 constituencies (the Aam Aadmi Party lost 12 of these and the BJP, 7, though it is debatable whether the Congress' votes would have transferred to the BJP).

- Saubhadra Chatterji

NEW DELHI:

The party may also perhaps take solace from the fact that among the AAP candidates who lost because of the Congress were AAP chief and former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal (he lost to the BJP's Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, the son of a former chief minister by a margin of 4,089 votes while the Congress' Sandeep Dikshit, the son of another former chief minister, polled 4,568 votes) and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia (he lost to the BJP's Tarvinder Singh Marwah by 675 votes, while the Congress' Farhad Suri polled 7,350 votes).

And it may take solace in playing a part in the downfall of the AAP, as suggested by the Congress' communications chief Jairam Ramesh.

"The 2025 Delhi Vidhan Sabha election results reflect nothing more than a referendum on Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party. After all, at the height of the PM's popularity in 2015 and 2020, AAP had won decisively in Delhi. This shows that, rather than being vindication of the policies of the PM, this vote is a rejection of Arvind Kejriwal's politics of deceit, deception, and vastly exaggerated claims of achievement," he said.