"More hard work required": Congress president Kharge on party's performance in Delhi 2025 assembly polls

New Delhi [India], February 8 (ANI): With the Congress party failing to secure a win for the third consecutive time in the Delhi assembly elections, party president Mallikarjun Kharge said on Saturday that "more hard work and struggle is required."
"Every Congress leader and worker worked unitedly under adverse circumstances, but more hard work and struggle is still required," Kharge said in a post on X.
The Congress party did not win a single seat in the 2025 Delhi assembly elections, continuing their streak of not having an MLA in the national capital's assembly. The party had earlier ruled Delhi for three consecutive terms (1998-2013) before being unseated by AAP. In a similar turn of events, the party which had won a decisive victory in 2020 with 62 seats, had a dismal performance, winning only 22 seats out of the total 70.
Talking about the party's strategy for fighting the polls, Kharge said that the Congress had created sentiment against the AAP-led government "in public interest," and accept the public's opinion.
"In the Delhi Assembly elections, the Congress party created an atmosphere against the government in the public interest, but the public did not give us the mandate as expected. We accept the public opinion," the party president said.
He further said that Congress will continue to raise issues of public importance, including pollution, Yamuna cleaning, road repairs and more.
"In the coming days, we will continue to raise the issues of pollution, Yamuna cleaning, electricity, roads, water and development in Delhi and will remain connected with the public," he said.
Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera also hit out AAP, saying that the recent elections are a "rejection of the Trojan horse that attempted to damage the liberal cause across the country."
Pointing towards a supposed "meltdown" of liberals, he added in a post on X, "The meltdown of a section of so called liberals is completely bizarre. They didn't give these lectures on opposition unity to AAP when the party went to Goa, Gujarat, Haryana etc to fight elections and weaken anti communal, secular vote. Delhi election result is a rejection of the Trojan horse that attempted to damage the liberal cause across the country."
"Majority of liberals are rightly cheering the fall of the facade so that the real champion of liberal values - the Indian National Congress - can emerge stronger to take the BJP on and defeat it," he added.
BJP won 48 seats while the AAP was victorious in 22 seats. The Delhi assembly elections were held in a single phase on February 5.
Several prominent leaders of AAP including former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia lost in the polls. (ANI)