New Delhi: The confusion over the Congress-AAP alliance has formally ended with Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) President, Arvind Kejriwal’s announcement that Congress President Rahul Gandhi has denied the collaboration for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in the capital.
Replying to Congress Delhi unit president, Sheila Dikshit’s remarks, Arvind Kejriwal said that we met Rahul and did refuse to forge an alliance with us. We did not inform our meeting because Sheila Dikshit is not that important to us.
Kejriwal in his statement made to the reporters the airport in Vishakhapatnam said that the president refused to “join hands with the AAP.”
Sheila Dikshit was the chief minister of Delhi for three consecutive terms which ended with AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal’s arrival. She is believed to be completely against AAP and in her letter to Rahul Gandhi, she along with Haroon Yusuf, Devender Yadav and Rajesh Lilothia protested a survey to gauge workers’ mood on the alliance and warned against the collaboration.
Congress leaders PC Chacko and KC Venugopal had informed Dikshit of Rahul’s decision to not join hands with AAP. The announcement was to be made by Shiela Dikshit on Sunday, however, the day went by without any official word from the Congress party.
With Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) on the roll for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, AAP president Arvind Kejriwal has been urging Congress to stitch an alliance in Delhi against BJP.
The failure of the alliance can be the division of Congress leaders on the decision of forming an alliance with AAP with Sheila Dikshit and her three working presidents opposing it.
The other reasons mentioned for the failure of the alliance were the due 2020 assembly election in which Congress will have to face AAP after the tie-up which would act as a hindrance to political benefits. Also, the party is not gaining beneficially with the alliance as only 2-3 seats are being offered by Kejriwal which would not make much difference politically.
Delhi has 7 Lok Sabha seats and will go to the polls on May 12 for the 2019 general elections.