NEW DELHI: The hopes of Aam Aadmi Party were shattered when reports started trickling in on Tuesday that Delhi Congress President Sheila Dikshit had said a clear no to an alliance with it. Ever since the three-time chief minister took over the reins of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee earlier this year, she has been clear about not joining hands with AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.
The AAP, which was hoping that the political weather in the capital would change by the afternoon, even postponed a press conference it was about to hold with its six candidates. A visibly distressed Gopal Rai, the AAP leader in charge of Delhi, said, “The Congress is in an undeclared alliance with the BJP”, to weaken AAP in Delhi.
Soon after receiving reports about the Congress decision, Chief Minister Kejriwal took to social media. “At a time when the whole country wants to defeat Modi-Shah duo, Cong is helping BJP by splitting anti-BJP vote,” he tweeted.“Rumours are that Congress has some secret understanding with BJP. Delhi is ready to fight against Cong-BJP alliance. People will defeat this unholy alliance,” he added.
In order to avoid the division of anti-BJP votes in parliamentary constituencies in Delhi, which will hurt AAP the most, the Kejriwal-led party was desperate for an alliance in the “interest of the nation”, Rai said. He added that “a mega campaign on the demand for statehood will be launched from March 10”.
“For the benefit of the nation, we were ready to drink this poison (Congress), we will always have major differences with the Congress, but we thought the nation’s best interest was foremost, so we wanted an alliance with them. Congress has started speaking the language of the BJP. There is a new change in them. But now AAP is formidable enough to defeat both, the BJP and the Congress,” Rai said.
Denying any differences over seat-sharing between the two parties, senior AAP leaders said that no formula had been discussed and that AAP was not talking directly to the Congress on the issue, but through the mahagathbandhan leaders.
Rai hit out at the central leadership of the Congress, saying that it was “compromised”. “They are protecting themselves and their own interest, not the nation’s. The BJP has some kind of pressure on them”, he said.
However, the party, which also wants to ally with the Congress in Punjab and Haryana, has still not closed its doors to the grand old party, hoping that it will join forces with it for the Lok Sabha polls. Rai said Kejriwal will now not go on a fast to demand full statehood for Delhi. According to party members, 1,000 teams have been tasked by the leadership with creating a groundswell in favour of the AAP demand for full statehood for Delhi.
The party is also looking at building a narrative that the BJP is trying to get electoral mileage from the Pulwama attack and India’s retaliatory air strike.
Campaign for statehood
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha election, the Aam Aadmi Party is planning to start a door-to-door campaign from March 10 for full statehood for Delhi, the party sources said. The AAP has already constituted 1,000 teams for the door-to-door campaign.