Voting for Congress akin to ensuring BJP's victory, says Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today appealed to people not to vote for the Congress as doing that is akin to making the BJP win, remarks which come in the backdrop of Congress showing signs of revival in the national capital,

"In Delhi, voting for Congress means cutting the votes of AAP and making BJP win," Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.

At a gathering earlier this week, Kejriwal had said there was no benefit of giving votes to the BJP and Congress — as both parties do not take care of Delhiites.

In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won all seven seats in the national capital, defeating Congress and AAP candidates. During that time, and even in 2015 Assembly polls, Kejriwal had used the same line, urging people not to vote for the Congress and "divide" the votes.

The Congress suffered heavy setbacks in the 2013 Assembly poll when the AAP made its debut with 28 seats. In that election, the vote share of the BJP was 33.07 percent, followed by the AAP (29.49 percent) and the Congress (24.55 percent).

The Congress was again relegated to the third position in all Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.

The vote share of the Congress shrunk to 9.65 percent, while the AAP bagged 54.34 percent votes, followed by the BJP, which got 32.19 percent votes.

However, in April 2017 Rajouri Garden by-poll, though the BJP wrested the seat from the AAP, the Congress came second while the AAP candidate lost his deposit.

In the 2017 MCD polls conducted a month later, the Congress vote share rose sharply to 21.28 percent, while the AAP bagged around 26 percent — less than half of what it got in 2015 Assembly polls.

By announcing Atishi (East Delhi), Raghav Chadha (South Delhi), Pankaj Gupta (Chandni Chowk), Dilip Pandey (Northeast Delhi) and Ghuggan Singh (Northwest Delhi) as Lok Sabha constituency in-charge, the AAP is already gearing up for the 2019 Lok Sabha poll.

Party sources said these five would be declared as AAP's Lok Sabha candidates.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)