AAP contacted our leaders to form govt: Cong
The AAP, on the other hand, dismissed Mr Mukesh Sharma’s claims as ‘ baseless’, saying, ‘ No one from our party has contacted any Congress leader’
A day after declaration of the poll results in Haryana and Maharashtra, the Congress on Monday claimed that it was again approached by some senior AAP leaders for government formation in the national capital.
Delhi Congress chief spokesperson Mukesh Sharma claimed that two senior AAP leaders had contacted him and some of his party leaders, over government formation.
Mr Sharma said that the two AAP leaders had even gone to the extent of saying that they were willing to accept Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely as the next chief minister. However, the Congress spokesperson said that the local leaders, who held a detailed discussion over the fresh elections, were of the view that the party should neither extend nor offer any support to the AAP.
Asked what were the reasons for the Congress not reportedly accepting the AAP offer, Mr Sharma said: “The people of this city have been suffering for the past one year just because there is no elected government. All the development works have come to a standstill. How come we can trust AAP which has been solely responsible for the political unrest. All we want is fresh elections.”
The AAP, on the other hand, dismissed Mr Sharma’s claims as “baseless,” saying, “No one from our party has contacted any Congress leader.” A senior AAP leader, requesting anonymity, said: “The Congress is down and out. That’s precisely why the party has been cooking up stories to stay in the headlines.”
AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal dared the BJP to immediately dissolve the Delhi Assembly, which has been under suspended animation since February. “There is no Modi wave in Delhi. We will be getting an absolute majority.”
Another AAP leader said that if the Congress was so “keen” to form the government, it should join hands with the BJP. “Both the BJP and the Congress joined hands to defeat the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi Assembly. They should again join hands to form the government.”
Earlier, the Congress had claimed that five of its MLAs were approached by the AAP. Even the AAP had alleged that the BJP was trying to poach on its legislators. The two parties had separately held media parades of the MLAs who were being allegedly approached by the two parties.
What is now worrying the AAP and the Congress is the BJP’s electrifying victory in the recent Lok Sabha elections, followed by another spectacular victory in Haryana and good result in the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
Insiders said that a majority of the AAP and the Congress MLAs were not in favour of fresh elections.