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‘AAP open to alliance’
The Congress is preparing to contest the Lok Sabha polls on its own in Delhi, though a section within it feels that the party should be open for an alliance with the AAP to achieve the larger goal of defeating the BJP, sources said on Friday
Congress ‘prepared to contest on its own’ in Delhi
New Delhi: The Congress is preparing to contest the Lok Sabha polls on its own in Delhi, though a section within it feels that the party should be open for an alliance with the AAP to achieve the larger goal of defeating the BJP, sources said on Friday.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is sending feelers to the Congress leadership for a pre-poll tie-up and it might happen, but till now no decision has been taken by the Congress’s Delhi unit, they said.
“The AAP is sending feelers to the Congress leadership for a tie-up and a section within the Congress feels that it should be open to having an alliance with the AAP, to achieve the larger purpose of defeating the BJP in Delhi.
“Our purpose is to defeat the BJP and ensure that the BJP does not win any seat in Delhi,” a senior Congress leader said.
A senior AAP leader, in the know of things, claimed that “the tie-up will happen. But, it will not come so fast and easily”.
Top leaders of the two parties are yet to talk about an alliance in Delhi, which has seven Lok Sabha constituencies, the sources said. The BJP won all the seven seats in Delhi in the 2014 general elections.
“The party is preparing for contesting all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and the process of selecting the candidates is on,” Congress general secretary P C Chacko told PTI. On an alliance with the AAP, he said, “There have been no talks yet”.
The AAP leader said, “We are ready to leave one seat for Congress in Delhi. The Congress must give us the four seats we won in Punjab and the Chandigarh seat.” “We are ready to support Congress in Goa and Haryana,” he said.
Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit on Friday held meetings with three working presidents of the party to discuss the issue of alliance with AAP, but there was no outcome. “Dikshit and the three working presidents were of the firm view that no alliance should be entertained with AAP and decided to convey this message to the party high command,” a senior Delhi Congress leader said.
Dikshit had earlier also asserted that the Congress is capable of contesting the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi on its own and had accused AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal of spreading lies on the alliance issue.
Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal had in a recent public meeting said that he was “tired” of convincing the Congress for an alliance in the Lok Sabha elections to defeat the BJP, but it was not understanding the issue.
“We are tired of convincing the Congress to form an alliance, but they do not understand. If there is an alliance, the BJP will lose all the seven Lok Sabha seats it currently has in Delhi,” Kejriwal said at a recent rally. “I don't know what they have in their minds,” he further said.
