Will AAP try to form Delhi govt again? Revolt brews

After its failure to open its account in any of Delhi’s seven Lok Sabha seats, the Aam Aadmi Party is facing a “revolt-like” situation, with some legislators demanding it forge an alliance with the Congress to form the government again.

But party spokesman Deepak Bajpai, quickly declared this was just speculation, and it would not seek Congress support again. “Some media again resorting to spreading rumors. No question of forming Govt in Delhi. AAP has always sought re- election since resignation,” it clarified on Twitter.

The AAP, which stunned everyone by winning 28 seats in the Delhi Assembly, formed the government with Congress support, but later resigned in 49 days after failing to get the Jan Lokpal Bill passed in the House.

The party faces severe criticism from legislators and key functionaries after the BJP won all seven seats in Delhi. Political affairs committee member Ilyas Azami openly blamed party chief Arvind Kejriwal and senior leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh over “wrong distribution” of Lok Sabha tickets. There is a buzz that some AAP MLAs want to join the BJP, but are held back by the antidefection law’s strict provisions.

A section of AAP volunteers, who had slogged day and night to make the party’s campaign a success, is miffed at the “unfair” ticket distribution for the Lok Sabha polls. Saturday’s meeting of the party saw some of its legislators openly demanding that it should again stake claim in the government formation in Delhi. The LS results clearly indicated that the AAP vote share has gone up by four per cent in the LS polls in comparison to the state election. But what is worrying the party the most is that the saffron outfit had managed to wrest the 24 Assembly segments, which the party had won in the Delhi elections in the LS poll. “Let me assure you, that the LS elections are not going to have any impact in the state polls. Our four per cent vote share is bound to get us more seats in the Assembly elections,” party spokesperson Nagender Sharma told this newspaper. “We are not going to approach the Congress to form government in Delhi.

We want fresh elections. That’s why we had sought dissolution of the House. ”