In a severe blow to unity in opposition ranks in the run-up to the Delhi election, Aam Aadmi Party on Monday said the decision to remove Congress from the alliance will be taken after consultations with other parties in the bloc-INDIA. This follows last week’s complaint against the AAP leader accusing Kejriwal of cheating the people by promising “non-existent” welfare schemes.
The situation had flared up after Congress leader Ajay Maken had remarked that the party’s decision to support AAP in 2013 led to its defeat in Delhi, thus increasing AAP’s annoyance.
At a press conference, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh attacked Maken for dubbing Kejriwal “anti-national” and asked Congress to take action against him within 24 hours. He was flanked by Chief Minister Atishi. He further said Congress was helping BJP in the coming Delhi elections.
“Ajay Maken is reading from the BJP’s script. If no action is taken against him, AAP will ask other INDIA bloc parties to remove Congress from the alliance,” Singh said.
Atishi further accused that the BJP was funding election expenditure of Congress candidates, including Sandeep Dikshit. “This clearly indicates that Congress has made some arrangement with the BJP for the Delhi elections,” she said.
“If Congress thinks we are anti-national, then why did they form an alliance with us in the Lok Sabha elections? It seems the Congress leaders have an understanding with the BJP, tacitly, so that AAP is harmed, and the BJP wins Delhi,” she added.
The complaint against Kejriwal was filed days after two Delhi departments came out with public notices to declare that the so-called Mahila Samman Yojana and Sanjeevani Yojna have not been officially notified, hence “non-existent.”
This controversy breaks out when Delhi Congress leaders made fresh attacks on the ruling party. Kejriwal had recently said that AAP proposes to go it alone during the Delhi polls for a four successive term. On Wednesday, Maken took it a notch higher when he said Congress needs to “undo the mistake” of forming an alliance with AAP for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Reacting to the confrontation between AAP and Congress, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said that both parties had “looted” Delhi and were now indulging in such spats to save their electoral graph. “Fifteen years ago, it was Congress that exploited Delhi, and for the past twelve years, AAP carried on that legacy.
Knowing they are about to face defeat in the Assembly elections, they are trying desperately to save their fate. What happened to their conscience when they went around together as a single unit during the Lok Sabha elections? The BJP has been fighting against them both these years,” Sachdeva said.
