Caravan News
NEW DELHI — After months of discussions and speculation the Congress on Friday made it officially clear that the party will have no alliance with Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi for the national election.
Congress party leader PC Chacko made it public while saying the two parties had even arrived at a pact for Delhi – four seats for AAP and three for Congress.
Attempts to bring the AAP and the Congress together started more than a month ago with a meeting at Maharashtra politician Sharad Pawar’s home, where Mamata Banerjee also urged Arvind Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi to get talking.
Mr Chacko countered AAP and said his party chief Rahul Gandhi had pushed for the alliance.
The Congress leader said AAP was adamant that along with Delhi, the two parties should also have tie-ups in Haryana and Punjab.
“The situation differs from state to state. Delhi is an ideal situation where AAP and Congress can come together. We arrived at a pact also. AAP wanted to discuss Haryana and others,” Mr Chacko said.
On the other hand, Congress Delhi leaders also had apprehensions in having an alliance with AAP in the beginning. Even Sheila Dikshit had warned Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi in a letter that an alliance with Kejriwal’s party would hurt the Congress in the long run.
The talks crashed finally and the strategic alliance between the two parties which was needed to ensure BJP’s rout could not be made.
Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi, said he would not need Congress’s help to win the seven seats in Delhi but a tie-up would help limit the BJP in Haryana and in Punjab.
Delhi goes to poll for its seven seats on May12.
