'Behaving like lords': Congress candidates blame AAP, city unit for Lok Sabha drubbing in Delhi

All three Congress candidates have blamed the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for their defeat in the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, The Indian Express reported on Thursday, citing sources. The Congress and AAP - both part of the INDIA bloc - had contested the parliamentary election together. While AAP contested on 4 seats, the Congress fought on 3. However, the BJP swept the polls by winning all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. 

The grand old party had fielded J P Agarwal from Chandni Chowk, Udit Raj from North West Delhi, and Kanhaiya Kumar from North East Delhi. Kumar lost the poll to BJP's Manoj Tiwari, who bagged the North East Delhi seat for the third time. 

According to the report, the Congress candidates have blamed the AAP for their losses, telling the All India Congress Committee's (AICC) two-member fact-finding committee that they allegedly faced a lack of cooperation from the AAP during their campaigns. The fact-finding report has been submitted to party president Mallikarjun Kharge. 

A Delhi Congress leader told the national daily that all party leaders, including senior leaders, former MLAs, and block and district presidents, had discussed the reasons for the defeat in Delhi. "Our candidates have consistently mentioned that the AAP did not cooperate during the elections," he said. 

The report said that one of the three candidates also slammed a section of the Delhi Congress for "remaining inactive", "behaving like lords" and "spreading lies" against him. He also targeted the AAP, saying that the ruling party leaders were worried that once their supporters voted for Congress, it would be difficult for them to return to AAP in the Assembly elections. 

From Congress, Udit Raj lost the election to BJP's Yogendra Chandolia by a whopping 2.9 lakh votes, Kanhaiya Kumar lost by nearly 1.4 lakh votes, and Jai Prakash Aggarwal lost by nearly 90,000 votes. For the AAP, the biggest defeat came from West Delhi, where its candidate Mahabal Mishra lost to Kamaljeet Sehrawat by nearly 2 lakh votes. 

The Congress and AAP are likely to go solo in the assembly elections, slated to be held early next year.