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Delhi election: Have Muslims abandoned Congress?
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By Syed Ubaidur Rahman Delhi's voters have given their verdict loud and clear. After months of
uncertainty, the electorate has reposed faith in Arvind Kejriwal and
his AAP that has its genesis in Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement.
It
is not just his victory that is important. What is more significant is
the groundswell of support the Aam Aadmi Party got. While the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) may have been decimated with just three seats, the
biggest loser is the Congress.
From being a ruling party at the
centre and in the capital, the Congress is finding it hard to believe it
has suddenly become irrelevant in Delhi. It had an absolute majority
just over a year ago in the Delhi assembly. This fell to eight seats in
2013. Now it has failed to win even one seat.
The worst news is
that the core Congress voters seem to have shifted en bloc to the AAP.
Even Congress leaders who looked infallible (Haroon Yusuf, Asif Muhammad
Khan and Choudhary Mateen) were badly bruised.
While the loss in
Delhi may be bad for the BJP, for the Congress this is worse. In the
last assembly election in Delhi, the party won in all constituencies
where Muslims live in large numbers. But this time it lost badly in
these places. AAP candidates whose names were barely known won by huge
margins while the Congress was pushed to the third spot.
While
the BJP has retained its core voters, the Congress' vote bank seems to
have gone to the AAP wholesale. From 24 percent vote share in 2013, the
Congress now got just nine percent votes.
The worrying aspect of
this election is that Muslim voters have ditched the Congress in a
manner not experienced in decades. This is something the Congress never
imagined could happen. If the trend continues and Dalits, minorities and
others continue to drift away from the Congress, it is going to change
the political scenario. Is India staring at a scenario in which the
Congress will be a marginal player?
While it may be too early to
write the Congress obituary, the reversal in fortunes hasn't been caused
by either Narendra Modi or Kejriwal. Congress leaders are themselves to
blame.
The Congress-led UPA government failed to take any
definite steps to improve the Muslim community's lot. The Sachar
Committee recommendations were never implemented. Muslim youths across
the country were hounded like never before. The Muslim community felt
scared. All these had a negative impact on their support for the Grand
Old Party. Leadership issue was a concern too. Sonia Gandhi was not
keeping well and Rahul Gandhi failed to impress.
Nonetheless
everything isn't lost as yet. The Congress has risen from the ashes in
the past. Muslims have historically remained with the party. They will
flock to it again if and when it starts showing that it cares for them
and sorts out leadership issues that seems to plague it.
(Syed Ubaidur Rahman is a New Delhi-based author and analyst. He can be reached at [email protected]