The Congress has appointed former members of legislative assembly and former ministers of Sheila Dikshit cabinet as coordinators for the seven Lok Sabha seats. The old-timers who have been assigned the politically sensitive task include former ministers Narendra Nath and Haroon Yusuf and former Congress MLAs Jai Kishan, Veer Singh Dhingan, Subhash Chopra, Mukesh Sharma and Vijay Lochav.
The party is going down to the grassroots to resurrect its moribund organisation. It has kicked off a massive overhaul, appointing one block president and two mandal presidents in each block. Every assembly constituency has at least three blocks, making it at a nine-member team in every assembly segment across 70 constituencies. There are roughly 10 assembly constituencies per parliamentary constituency in Delhi. The exercise will be wrapped up by October-end.
Delhi Pradesh Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely told ET, “We have conveyed our opinion about alliance with Aam Aadmi Party to our senior leaders. We are now preparing for 2024 parliamentary elections organisationally.”
A senior Congress leader said on condition of anonymity, “AAP is a whimsical party. We don’t know if there will be an alliance. Our state unit does not want it. So we are preparing across seven constituencies.”
The party is looking at the results of the 2019 LS election, when it finished second in five out of seven constituencies and relegated the AAP to the third spot. The BJP won all seven seats and the Congress finished second in Chandni Chowk, North East Delhi, East Delhi, New Delhi and West Delhi constituencies. In August, Delhi Congress leader Alka Lamba had stirred a controversy when she said after a three-hour long meeting with the party top brass, “Seven months are left. All party workers have been asked to prepare for all seven seats.”
