Interview with Ajay Maken: ‘Cong faced loss of credibility in 2015, AAP faces it this time’
Congress leader Ajay Maken Congress leader Ajay Maken
Day ahead of elections to the Municipal Corporations of Delhi, Congress Delhi unit chief AJAY MAKEN speaks to The Indian Express on the party’s strategy and what Congress plans to do if they come to power.
Congress has maintained a close-to-the-ground approach rather than a loud campaign. Will it pay off?
The focussed campaign is a deliberate strategy. Municipal elections are about local issues — roads, drainage, parks, sanitation, and about local candidates, who have to be accessible and who have to deliver. For the first time, we did not just raise issues, we are providing solutions. No other party has attempted to do so.
We have involved P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Shashi Tharoor, Salman Khurshid and other senior leaders. Whereas, the BJP is bringing in leaders from other states to campaign. Ours is a positive campaign — we will not make excuses, we will work for development. We have three different roadmaps for sanitation, primary health and primary education.
Rahul Gandhi was expected to campaign…
Rahul Gandhi will not campaign because never have the party president or vice-president campaigned for MCD elections before. However, no other party can match our firepower — we have brought in Captain Amarinder Singh, V Narayanasamy, Navjot Sidhu and A K Antony to campaign.
What impact will the recent Assembly polls and the Rajouri Garden bypoll have?
In Rajouri Garden, there are several booths where AAP has secured under 20 votes. These are in JJ clusters, resettlement colonies, transit areas, t-huts and slums. All these are where Congress has won. They were our traditional strongholds and we have captured them again.
First, AAP has failed to deliver, and second is the exaggerated credit-taking. At least 98,000 students have withdrawn from Delhi government schools in two years. It means parents are unhappy and have withdrawn their wards. But there are advertisements claiming an educational revolution in Delhi.The government is spending taxpayers’ money to make these claims. This is what India Shining did to BJP in 2004. And this is what happened to AAP.
But why is Congress content with second place in Rajouri?
We have a recorded a 300 per cent increase in vote share and we are happy with our performance. There are many non-believers but supporters of Congress. The voter does not want to waste his vote so if a party is slated to be third, even its own supporters will not vote for it. Now, Congress being a healthy second, and AAP losing its deposit, has put Congress as the main opposition in Delhi. Both vis-a-vis Centre and the state. This gives us a springboard for the upcoming civic elections.
What’s your take on AAP’s proposed house tax waiver?
Tax waiver is something Kejriwal thinks will work for them but people have to believe you have the credibility of keeping your word. In 2015, when Congress made poll promises, people asked us, what were we doing these last 15 years. They said, “Why didn’t you do it when you were in power?” There was a loss of credibility at that time. People did not take us seriously. That credibility crisis is now in Kejriwal’s domain. It is possible to give exemption on property tax, it is not possible to waive off. Either Mr Kejriwal does not know this or he is saying it so that in the future, he can say “I wanted to do this but the Act didn’t permit me to,” which is his usual reason for non-fulfillment of promises… As a CM you can’t behave like the opposition party. You need to perform.
How does the Congress plan to counter the BJP?
BJP has done damage to itself by… dropping all its sitting councillors. The corporations need experienced councillors because it takes a lot of time for a new councillor to understand its nitty gritties.
For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App now