When arithmetic trips chemistry
The resignation of Arvinder Singh Lovely as Delhi Congress chief days ahead of polling is bad optics for the INDIA bloc. The AAP was built a decade ago on the debris of the Delhi Congress — the former ran for office by demonising the party that had been in office in Delhi for three consecutive terms. Congress leaders now eyeing the opening of the political space in Delhi following AAP leaders being embroiled in alleged corruption scandals and their subsequent arrests, are discomfited by the push from the top to yield space to the same party they were fighting an existential battle against. Interestingly, Delhi’s poll data for the 2019 general elections reveals a different story — the Congress is a distant third force, and together, the parties lack the numbers to bridge the gap in votes between the winners and runners-up in the seven parliamentary constituencies in 2019. For instance, the PV Narasimha Rao-led Congress imposed a tie-up with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu ahead of the 1996 general elections overruling local objections.
Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely resigns, says party allied with AAP
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