AAP played spoiler in Gujarat: Chidambaram

The Congress is best placed to be the pole around which a nonBJP front can be built for the 2024 general elections senior party leader P Chidambaram said on Sunday and asserted that the Aam Aadmi Party does not have much appeal outside Delhi with the exception of Haryana and PunjabChidambaram also stressed that there were lessons to be learnt by the Congress from the Gujarat loss saying there is no such thing as a silent campaign in a hardfought electionIn an interview with PTI he also said the Aam Aadmi Party AAP played spoiler in Gujarat like it did earlier in Goa and UttarakhandHe weighed in on the recent elections in Gujarat Himachal Pradesh assemblies and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi should reflect on the fact that the BJP was in power in all three but was defeated in twoThat is a huge setback for the BJP The win in Gujarat important as it is cannot hide the fact that the BJP the incumbent was defeated decisively in Himachal Pradesh and MCD the former Union minister saidThe Congress in Himachal and the AAP in MCD polls won by a decisive margin of seats he pointed out The overall margin of votes in Himachal Pradesh may be small but it was not a statewide presidential kind of election It was a constituencywise election and we have to look at the margin in each constituency he saidIn many of the 40 constituencies won by the Congress the margins were sizable A statewide margin is an inappropriate measure in a constituencywise election Chidambaram said when asked about the PM highlighting the less than one per cent vote share difference between the Congress and the BJP in HimachalAlso Read Congress president or not Rahul Gandhi will always have preeminent place in party ChidambaramAsked about the Congress debacle in Gujarat and the low key campaign in the state Chidambaram said he was not fully acquainted with the strategy if any followed in the stateMy sense was the Congress did not have great expectations in Gujarat As a general rule I believe that in every election the party must put its best forward and throw into the battle all the available resources human material and digital he saidThe Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee ought to have mobilised the best human resources available in the Congress all over the country and deployed them in the campaign he saidI also believe that there is no such thing as a silent campaign in a hardfought election There are lessons to be learnt from the Gujarat loss he saidOn whether the AAP would pose a challenge to the Congress leadership of the Opposition block after winning MCD polls and bagging about 13 per cent of the vote share in Gujarat Chidambaram said the AAPs win in the MCD election was not surprising as it is the ruling party in DelhiThe BJP carried the burden of 15 years of incumbency in the MCD and the Congress was not a serious contender he opinedHowever in Gujarat the AAP played the spoilers role like it did earlier in Goa and Uttarakhand The AAP dented the chances of the Congress in 33 seats in Gujarat Chidambaram saidI do not think the AAP has much appeal outside Delhi except perhaps in Haryana and Punjab As the AAP travels further from Delhi it will find that its appeal diminishes he saidWhether the AAP has qualified for the label of national party or not is of little significance he addedAsked whether the Congress still remains the fulcrum of the Opposition alliance to take on the BJP in 2024 polls Chidambaram said Yes the Congress is best placed to be the pole around which a nonBJP front can be builtTalking about Opposition unity he said Opposition unity has always been difficult to build and maintain Remember 1977 and 1989 If the Congress undertakes the task with humility and if the other parties undertake the task with realism I think it is possible to forge unity for an electoral allianceOn the poll results and their implications for the road to 2024 general elections he said that before 2024 there is 2023 and elections in several states including Karnataka Rajasthan Madhya Pradesh and ChhattisgarhAlong with the results of the recently concluded three elections in 2022 the forthcoming state elections next year will set the field for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 he saidHow well the BJP will do and how well the Congress and other nonBJP parties will do in the state elections will undoubtedly play a major role in determining the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections Chidambaram opinedAsked whether the Bharat Jodo Yatra had any impact on the recently concluded polls and whether it would pay any electoral dividends to the party going forward he said Rahul Gandhi made it clear at the outset that the aim of the Bharat Jodo Yatra was not to reap political benefitsIts goals were larger and with a long time view I did not expect the BJY to influence the election in a state that the Bharat Jodo Yatra did not traverse What impact it may have in the states that it traversed remains to be seen Chidambaram saidIn Gujarat assembly polls the BJP won a record 156 seats with a staggering 525 per cent vote share dwarfing the Opposition Congress and the AAP that got over 27 per cent and about 13 per cent vote share respectively The Congress got just 17 seats while the AAP managed to bag five Independents won three seats and the Samajwadi Party picked up oneIn Himachal Pradesh the Congress won 40 seats and a vote share of 439 per cent The BJP won 25 with 43 per cent vote share and on three seats independents were victoriousThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever