How Delhi dominates Congress structure despite no presence in Assembly or Parliament?

New Delhi: The All India Congress Committee (AICC), the central unit of the grand old party, is heavily dominated by functionaries from Delhi, from where it has no presence in the Assembly or Parliament.

In the past two assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, the Congress failed to open its account. In the 2015 assembly elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) bagged 67 of the total 70 seats while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the remaining three.

In the 2020 assembly elections, the AAP secured 62 seats while the BJP managed to bag eight. In both the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won all seven seats from the national capital.

Yet, there are no immediate signs of revival of the Congress in the capital state given that the AAP is strongly placed in assembly elections and the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.

Both the AAP and the Congress have joined hands for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections with Arvind Kejriwal's party contesting on four seats and the grand old party on three.

Coming to the AICC structure, the all-important post of the treasurer is held by Ajay Maken from Delhi, the party's in-charge of Punjab Devendra Yadav is also from the city-state.

Among the 60-odd secretaries, five -- Abhishek Dutt, Amrita Dhawan, CP Mittal, Rohit Choudhary and Shiv Bhatia -- are from Delhi. One of the eight joint secretaries, Naveen Sharma, too is from the national capital.

The Central Election Authority (CEA) of the Congress that conducts the organisational polls has four members out of which Arvinder Singh Lovely is from Delhi. The Civic and Social Outreach Congress is headed by Sandeep Dixit who is again from Delhi.

The chairman of the media and publicity department is Pawan Khera, also from the city-state, and so is AICC media coordinator Shailendra Choudhary.

Similarly, Scheduled Castes department head Rajesh Lilothia and Unorganised Workers And Employees Congress Other Than Professionals Chairman Udit Raj are also from the city-state.

This Delhi domination in the AICC set-up despite repeated electoral setbacks has resulted in disillusionment among the leaders and workers from other states as they feel that poor performance appears to be the key to being an important part of the power structure in the grand old party.