AICC interim in-charge takes feedback from leaders for selecting new Delhi Cong chief

The process for selecting the new president of the Delhi Congress began with AICC interim in-charge Shaktisinh Gohil taking feedback from senior leaders of the city unit during meetings on Wednesday. Sources said Gohil held separate meetings with several senior Delhi Congress leaders, including working presidents Haroon Yusuf and Rajesh Lilothia, Tarvinder Singh Marwah, and Jitender Kochar among others.

The post of Delhi Congress president is lying vacant as Subash Chopra stepped down from the post, after the party suffered a humiliating defeat in the recent assembly polls. P C Chacko, All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of the Delhi Congress, also resigned. In 2015 also, the Congress had failed to open its account in the assembly elections.

"Gohil enquired about Congress' massive defeat in the assembly elections and also the ways and means to resurrect the party," said one of the party leaders who was in the meeting.

The meetings will continue for some more days, before Gohil submits his report to the party high command, a Congress leader said. Congress' performance in the Delhi Assembly elections touched a record low with the party bagging less than five per cent votes and 63 of its candidates losing their deposits. The party, which ruled Delhi for 15 years on the trot under former chief minister Sheila Dikshit, failed to open its account for the second consecutive time in the assembly polls.

The fortunes of the party had revived under Dikshit who was appointed Delhi Congress president before the Lok Sabha polls last year. The party had managed to improve its vote percentage and also pushed the AAP on third place in five of the seven parliamentary constituencies in the city.

However, Dikshit's demise in July 2019 again posed a serious challenge before the party just ahead of the assembly polls. Chopra stepped in Dikshit's shoes leading the party in the assembly polls but the task proved too daunting as all the Congress candidates, including his own daughter, lost.