A by-poll in the 21 Delhi assembly seats would spell a golden opportunity for the Congress, as at least nine of them have been traditional Congress strongholds.
The Congress -- after biting the dust in the last assembly elections -- is sniffing revival in the capital, as 21 Aam Aadmi Party legislators stare at disqualification with President Pranab Mukherjee’s refusal to give assent to a bill to legalise their position as parliamentary secretaries.
The call for a by-poll of the 21 assembly seats of Delhi will spell a golden opportunity for the Congress, for at least nine of them have been traditional Congress strongholds.
These include Sadar Bazar, Jangpura, Rajouri garden, Rohtas Nagar, Chandni Chowk, Gandhi Nagar east, Kondli east, Kalkaji, Rajinder Nagar and Narela. Except a few BJP-dominated areas, the others have alternately seen Congress and the BJP come back in different assembly elections.
Since the last four elections, areas like Sadar Bazar and Chandni Chowk have been with the Congress, before being ousted by the AAP in the 2015 assembly elections.
If the Congress manages to win even eight of the 10 seats, it would replace the BJP as the main opposition party in the Delhi assembly.
Anticipating a re-election of the 21 seats, the Delhi Congress has already begin its ground work. On Thursday, it announced that it would launch a ''signature campaign'' in 21 Delhi legislative Assembly constituencies where polls, it said, are pending and expose the AAP government's double standards and deceiving people of the national capital.
Addressing the press, Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken said, ''Congress would hold a massive door-to-door campaign from 0900 hrs to 1100 hrs from the coming Sunday to next Sunday in which its workers would go to every household with a pamphlet and take signatures of at least one person from every family on it seeking resignation of the MLA in fray in the polls from that constituency.
Asking Kejriwal why his party was backing away from holding polls, Maken asked if rising prices of tomatoes, not providing free wi-fi connectivity to Delhiites, not being able to provide free medicines to the needy or not introducing Lok Pal in Delhi are the reasons.
If the recent bypoll of 13 seats of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi are anything to go by, the Congress is making a slow entry back to the city. The Congress won an impressive four seats, which, surprisingly, were not from Congress-dominated areas.
However, a senior AAP leader dismissed the prospect of a re-election of the seats saying that the replies filed by the parliamentary secretaries to the Election Commission clearly shows that none of them were holding an office of profit. There are ample examples of other parties appointing parliamentary secretaries.
“If the election commission still takes such a decision under the pressure of the Centre, then we will have to take the legal route,” the legislator said.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Ajay Maken")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}