Kirti Azad becomes Congress’ new face in Delhi Assembly Elections 2020

Congress generally follows a tradition of not announcing the name of Chief Minister in state elections. However, if party wins, Chairperson of the Campaign Committee is generally given the opportunity to lead the government. Thus within the Congress, Azad has emerged as replacement of former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit but this is start of his challenges.

With the appointment of cricketer turned politicians Kirti Azad as the Chairperson of Campaign Committee, Congress party has formally declared its face for the upcoming Delhi Assembly Elections 2020. As per the tradition of the Congress' electoral politics, the chairperson of the campaign committee happens to be the de facto chief ministerial candidate of the party. The party has also declared its committees for manifesto, campaign, state election, publicity, election management, and media coordination.

In addition to Azad, the campaign committee has five senior Congress leaders as Vice Chairpersons which includes a total of 164 members. Congress generally follows a tradition of not announcing the name of Chief Ministerial candidate in state elections. However, the appointment of the Chairperson of Campaign Committee is considered crucial as he finally leads the government. In Delhi, Sheila Dikshit was first appointed Chairperson of Campaign Committee in 1998. Thereafter she held the position in 2003, 2008, 2013 Delhi Assembly elections. She was Chief Minister for three consecutive terms but lost in 2013. In all these years Ram Babu Sharma and J P Agarwal were president of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC).

Azad joined Congress on February 18, 2019. Earlier, he was a MP in Lok Sabha from Darbhanga in Bihar as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader. Before that he was also MLA of BJP from Gole Market constituency in Delhi Assembly. His appointment as campaign lead is being seen as Congress' attempt to win the confidence of Poorvanchal community which reportedly constitutes about one third votes in Delhi.

Congress has also appointed a 56 member Pradesh Election Committee in the Chairmanship of Delhi Pradesh Congress President Subhash Chopra. Former Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken will lead 69-member manifesto committee while his predecessor J. P. Agarwal will lead 163-member publicity committee. Senior Congress leader and former Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely has been assigned the responsibility of Election Management Committee.

In 2015, Congress had failed to open its account as AAP gained a landslide victory by bagging 57 out of 70 assembly seats in Delhi. However, this time the party is trying to put a united and rejuvenated face before the people. With the appointment of Azad, Congress' search for a face in Delhi seems to have completed. However, the performance of Congress in Delhi Assembly Elections 2020 would decide on how far Azad could lead the Delhi Congress.