Cong, AAP rule out possibility of alliance in 2019 LS elections

NEW DELHI: Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Maken on Saturday said that workers and leaders of the Congress Delhi unit do not want any electoral understanding with Aam Aadmi Party

In reply, AAP asked the Congress to “show guts” and announce its candidates for the seven Delhi Lok Sabha seats for the 2019 general elections

“All leaders and workers of the Congress in Delhi do not want any alliance with Kejriwal party due to two reasons. First, his popularity is fast declining as his government is not working. The other reason is that the AAP is responsible for creating the monster of Modi,” Maken told reporters here.

He further said that the vote share of AAP, which was 56-57 per cent in the 2015 Assembly elections, came down to 26 per cent in the 2017 Municipal elections. “On the other hand, the vote percentage of Congress party went up from 9.5 per cent to 22 per cent in the 2017 elections,” Maken said

He also claimed that as AAP had failed outside Delhi, they were keen to have alliance with Congress in the Capital.

After Maken’s comments, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s media advisor Nagendar Sharma said Maken was trying his hand at psephology “after being rejected in politics.”

“Having led his party to security deposits being lost in 63/70 Delhi constituencies, he is now measuring graphs. Show guts and declare your seats,” Sharma tweeted.

He also said the Kairana byelection result in Uttar Pradesh clearly indicate that non-bjp parties need not be led by Congress. “This old party hobnobs with the BJP and treats other parties with disdain. It’s Delhi unit is a virtual BJP front,” Sharma further tweeted.

In another sarcastic tweet targetted at Maken, Sharma stated, “A joker first day-dreams of three Lok Sabha seats offer, then next day realises nobody on earth will even spare a single seat for a party which finished a poor third on all seven Delhi seats in 2014 and lost its security deposit in four seats.”.

The talks about possibility of an alliance between the two parties began on Friday with Maken and AAP leader Dilip Pandey taking to Twitter to make claims and counterclaims about who approached whom.