The Hindu : New Delhi News : Congress upbeat, BJP pensive

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Sunday, Sep 07, 2008
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New Delhi

Congress upbeat, BJP pensive

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

A wake-up call before Assembly polls: Goel

NEW DELHI: The Congress in Delhi went into a celebratory mood on Saturday after National Students’ Union of India bagged three out of the four posts in the Delhi University Students’ Union elections. On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party first protested the results of two seats and then went into self-introspection to evaluate why Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad lost despite being the favourites.

No sooner were the results announced, a number of Congress leaders made a beeline for 10 Janpath to congratulate party president Sonia Gandhi. With the scion of the Gandhi dynasty and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi having been closely involved with the working of the Youth Congress and the NSUI in the recent past, the result definitely gave the party leaders an opportunity to knock at the doors of the big-wigs.

While Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit termed the win a “victory of Congress ideology”, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president J.P. Agarwal led a number of party workers and drum-beaters to 10 Janpath. Seeing in the victory “an indication of Congress popularity”, he also declared that the party would sweep the Delhi Assembly elections in the coming months as people believed in its ability to rule and protect their interests.

A number of Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress workers led by its president Anil Kumar also went to the residence of the party president to congratulate her, spokesperson Kunal Sharma said.

Another Congress leader and DPCC general secretary, Naresh Kumar, said since the Congress-backed NSUI won despite a low voter turnout, it also showed that if at all there was a dedicated cadre of voters, it was the Congress’ and not the BJP’s that had always claimed to have a strong captive vote bank.

“Ever since we won the vote of confidence in Parliament on the nuclear deal issue, the morale of the party has been soaring. With this win, it would increase even more,” he added.

For the BJP, the result came as a rude shock as it was expecting a much better performance and believed that its panel had all the trappings to secure a big win. “We had expected at least three seats, but it turned the other way round. There has been some bungling in counting -- and if that is not the case then it is a definite wake-up call for us,” said BJP general secretary Vijay Goel.

Mr. Goel said these results had also shown that there should not be any complacency in the party ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections and it needed to work hard to ensure that the wave in support of the party at large or the sentiment against the ruling Congress got translated into votes for it.

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