NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress on Thursday traded blame for their failure to form an alliance in Delhi for the Lok Sabha elections.
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal said Congress president Rahul Gandhi would be “the only person responsible” if the BJP returned to power at the Centre, while PC Chacko, the All India Congress Committee member in charge of Delhi, said Kejriwal had gone back on his word after a 4-3 seat-sharing formula had been agreed on.
“The time is over. Tomorrow is the last day of withdrawal of names, so that possibility is not there. Alliance is a closed chapter now. They (AAP) have openly taken a stand they don’t want alliance with Congress,” Chacko said.
Earlier, speaking during the launch of the AAP manifesto, Kejriwal said, “AAP never dreamt of coming together with the Congress, a party which we fought against, but to save the nation, its constitution, we approached the Congress for a tie-up. We made all efforts, but the Congress changed its conditions after every meeting.”
“We wanted to cut BJP off 33 seats, but the Congress never had that intention. AAP will support any alliance that comes to power,” he added.
The AAP chief said he was surprised by Rahul Gandhi’s announcement of a proposed seat-sharing formula on Twitter. “I want to ask Rahul Gandhi, where in the world has anyone heard of an alliance being formed on Twitter?”
“I want to appeal to all those who want to defeat Modi in this election, do not vote for Congress, do not split the vote. Hindus will not vote for Congress, there is confusion among Muslims. Congress is damaging the anti-BJP alliance across the country” added Kejriwal.
Meanwhile, all seven Congress candidates in Delhi, along with local unit chief Sheila Dikshit, put up a united front on Thursday. Dikshit formally introduced the candidates to the media. Subhash Chopra, chairman of the campaign committee, said each constituency would have a separate campaigning committee in order to highlight local issues.