Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief, Arvind Kejriwal, on April 1, cleared the air on the speculations of his party’s alliance with ‘once upon a pro rival’ Congress party. He said that Congress party president, Rahul Gandhi, has refused to back the concept of an alliance with AAP for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in the national capital, Delhi. “We had only one meeting with Rahul Gandhi where he said no (to alliance),” he said, quoted ANI.
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Kejriwal made headlines after speaking these words on Monday. He said this while speaking to reporters at the Vishakhapatnam airport on Monday morning. He was leaving for Delhi, a day after he attended a mega rally along with West Bengal Chief Minister and All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief, Mamata Banerjee, on the invitation of Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu.
This comes days after Congress in-charge of Delhi, PC Chacko, said that Congress and AAP will come together to defeat Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “Both parties may have problems that apart we’ve to defeat Modi and BJP. So, we’ll come together,” ANI quoted Chacko as saying.
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When asked Kejriwal about the claims of Congress’ Delhi unit President and former Delhi chief minister, Sheila Dikshit, that AAP had not approached her, he reacted, “We have met Rahul Gandhi. Sheila Dikshit unse chhoti hain (Sheila Dixit is lesser important than Rahul Gandhi)”, quoted ET.
The Congress’ Delhi unit has been divided over alliance with the AAP. Four former Delhi Congress leaders viz; Ajay Maken, Subhash Chopra, Tajdar Babar and Arvinder Singh Lovely are said to be in favour of alliance with the AAP. Delhi unit chief Sheila Dikshit, and three working presidents of Delhi Congress viz; Devender Yadav, Rajesh Lilothia and Haroon Yusuf are against the idea of joining hands with the AAP.
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On the other hand, there are 12 district Congress party presidents and numerous party councillors in the three civic bodies who have unanimously favoured alliance with the Delhi ruling party, AAP. PC Chacko has handed over a signed letter to this effect to Congress party president, Rahul Gandhi. Meanwhile, the final decision is yet to be taken by the Congress party. Even AAP wanted to forge an alliance with Congress party to keep the saffron party, BJP, away from repeating the 2014 result.
The Aam Aadmi party is urging, over a period of time, to form an alliance with the Congress party in Delhi stating that a division of votes will help BJP in all the seven constituencies in the national capital. The BJP had won all Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in 2014 parliamentary polls. Delhi has 7 Lok Sabha seats and it will go to polls on May 12, this year. The result of the Lok Sabha polls is expected to come out on May 23.
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