The antics of Tamil Nadu Congress MP Manickam Tagore have not gone unnoticed in the wake of the Delhi poll results. Displaying what was clearly his delight at the AAP taking a tumble in the Delhi elections, the MP had posted on X just two words – ‘Delhi Results’ – along with a video of Arvind Kejriwal declaring that there be no tie-up in Delhi. While schadenfreude is understandable, what the post tries to make is a case that Kejriwal was to blame for the Congress not agreeing to adjustments and the grand old party going ahead to contest in all 70 seats and playing the spoiler. In fact, it was Congress, which often accused the AAP of being the BJP’s B team, ended up playing the role of ‘BJP B’ in the Delhi polls by clearly affecting the results in 14 seats, including that of Kejriwal, and turning the contest around for a BJP sweep. If the INDIA alliance had been in place and Congress contested only a few seats to keep up its Delhi identity and poll ambitions, the verdict may have been totally different with the AAP prevailing in a close contest. What happened in the end was that Congress scored a triple bagel – 000 – in three successive Delhi polls and Kejriwal lost power and Congress spokespersons were looking at the crumbs of the poll verdict and predicting the party’s comeback in 2030.
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