In the midst of a cold wave in Delhi, where temperatures have dropped to as low as 2 degrees Celsius, the lowest in several years, behind the scenes political activity is hotting up. And taking the lead is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which on Saturday dropped clear hints of becoming a part of a ‘grand alliance’ to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
This means that the AAP has to become part of an opposition alliance which will have the Congress.
The hints came after the party’s National Council meeting where the AAP said it would utilise all its power and energy for contesting the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Goa and Chandigarh.
AAP Delhi convener Gopal Rai said after the meeting that the party would contribute in whatever way it can to ensure the end of the Narendra Modi government.
This effectively means that the AAP wants an alliance with the Congress in Delhi because it hardly has any base elsewhere. Whatever be its national ambitions and its desire to be seen as a pan-India party, the AAP is still Delhi-centric.
Various rumours are doing the rounds about the seat-sharing formula. But informed political circles are talking about a 4-3 formula, in which the AAP contests four of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, leaving the rest to the Congress.
A young and articulate spokesman of the AAP is understood to have said that a 4-3 seat-sharing agreement would be best for both parties. While it is premature to talk about the exact seat-sharing formula, it can almost certainly be said that there will be an alliance.
But the AAP’s desire to have an agreement almost came unstuck when the party pushed through a resolution in the Delhi Assembly calling for the withdrawal of the Bharat Ratna to late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for his alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Although the next day the party stridently denied that any such resolution was passed, and subsequently even produced the Assembly’s records to show there was no such thing, videos of the House proceedings nailed the AAP’s lies.
The hasty denial was because the party, while seeking an alliance with the Congress, could not be seen to have engineered a patently ill-conceived and petty-minded resolution. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal fielded his deputy, Manish Sisodia, to deny the move but it failed to cut much ice.
While former minister Somnath Bharti took blame for the resolution moved by party MLA Jarnail Singh, political circles believe such a move could not have been possible without the approval of the highest authorities of the party.
The AAP self-goal has had an unexpected scapegoat in party MLA Alka Lamba. A former Congress member, Lamba is understood to have stridently opposed the resolution against Rajiv Gandhi in the Assembly.
Lamba is now in the doghouse, with the party not even inviting her for the National Council meeting although all party MLAs are invitees. Political circles say she may have the same fate as former minister Kapil Mishra, who openly works against the party and Kejriwal even while he is yet to be expelled by the party. In the Assembly, Mishra has been given a seat away from the treasury benches and is no longer an invitee to any party event.
The whole episode exposes the AAP’s political immaturity. While it is electorally expedient to have an alliance in order to take on the BJP, the ill-conceived resolution has handed the Congress an upper hand. Also, the move would not have gone down well with the average voters.
While Rajiv Gandhi may not have best and most popular Prime Minister, there is no place for vindictiveness in the minds of the public. The AAP realised this and so the hasty denial. But the voters are unlikely to forget this.
H Khogen Singh
Resident Editor, New Delhi
Email: khogensingh@newindianexpress.com