NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday exhorted booth in-charges in the capital to work to ensure the party grabs all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the state, signalling an end to the possibility of an alliance with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the upcoming parliamentary elections.“The Congress is to win all seven seats in Delhi. It all depends on you (booth presidents). Now, you go and tell people about the ‘chowkidar’ (watchman), ‘the aam aadmi’ (common man), and the Congress. You need to tell them that only Congress can change the country and Delhi,” said Gandhi at a party workers’ convention-cum-workshop in the national capital.
Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) chief Sheila Dikshit, last week, announced her opposition to an alliance. After a meeting with Rahul, she had said it was unanimously decided that there would be no alliance. When speculation started again after she met with United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Saturday, Dikshit had reiterated her stand.
“No discussion was even initiated to have a coalition with AAP. Our leaders never favoured any association with the ruling party in Delhi,” said former DPCC chief Jai Prakash Agrawal.But, two senior Delhi Congress leaders, who spoke to this newspaper, said talks had not ended yet. “Talks intensified after Farooq Abdullah, chairman of Jammu & Kashmir National Conference and West Bengal chief Mamata Banerjee intervened. Chacko and Maken are interested. AAP’s Sanjay Singh is speaking to our leadership. Soon, an announcement will be made in this regard,” said one the leaders.
However, Sanjay Singh, AAP’s national spokesperson and an MP from Delhi, dismissed the possibility definitively. “All doors for an alliance with the Congress are shut. We are making preparations to contest alone,” he said. At the booth presidents’ convention, which was attended by Dikshit, Delhi incharge PC Chacko and other senior leaders, Dikshit exuded confidence of a Congress victory on all seven seats.
“Party workers in the national capital wish to see Rahulji as the leader of the country in future. To make this a reality, we will go to any extent. We will make sure the party gets all seven seats,” Dikshit said.
Attacks on Modi
In his about half an hour long address on Monday, Gandhi launched a tirade against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for Pulwama terror attack.
He said it was the BJP government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, which had released the Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar. JeM had taken responsibility of the suicide bombing attack on February 14 in Pulwama, in which 40 CRPF personnel died.
Talking of problems in the Capital, he hit out at the BJP and the AAP saying,“Shops were sealed in Delhi. Both parties remained quiet. Petrol prices increased. Shopkeepers and small-mid level traders suffered due to GST and demonetisation. We will ensure easily loans to small shopkeepers and mid-size businessman in Delhi,” the Congress chief said.
Training his guns on the NDA government’s flagship programmes, he said even though they had floated the ‘Make in India’ programme, Modi wears clothes and shoes that are made in China. “The cell phone, he (Modi) uses for selfies is also China made,” the Congress chief said during the address.