No truck with AAP, says agitated Cong

The Congress has decided not to have any alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi or in the three states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh going for the Assembly polls this year end.

Its anger with AAP stems from the fact that the latter is trying to split the anti-BJP votes in the three states that would have otherwise faced a straight fight between the Congress and the ruling BJP. The Congress leaders say AAP deliberately joins the electoral battle in the states where the Congress alone is better placed to challenge the BJP, pointing out that this happened earlier in Gujarat and Karnataka also.

They say AAP has hardly any chance to make a mark in the three states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and yet its decision to contest all the seats in these states clearly shows that it is bent on splitting the anti-incumbency votes that would have defeated the BJP.

Cong claims that AAP is trying to split anti-BJP votes in the three states that would have otherwise faced a straight fight between Congress and BJP

The Congress suspicion about AAP’s motives also grows from the past record that it does not venture out in the states where the Congress is not in the reckoning and the regional forces hold the sway. It stayed away from the Assembly elections in Bihar in 2015 and in Uttar Pradesh in 2017.