Congress rubbishes AAP tie-up talk

Amidst the talks of ‘maha gathbandhan’ of all Opposition parties against the BJP for 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress party on Friday categorically rubbished the rumours regarding the grand-old-party allying with the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab or even considering the same.

Dismissing as assumptions the news that Congress would be interested in an alliance with AAP in Punjab, the state party president Sunil Jakhar ruled out any talks in this regard.

He said that “vested interests” were trying to sabotage the Congress in the wake of the party’s impressive Shahkot assembly bypoll win.

To clarify the party’s stand, Jakhar took to Twitter. “We completely reject the news of the Congress and the AAP alliance in Punjab, which is a work of fiction and is purely a rumour being advanced by people with vested interests, especially in the wake of Shahkot debacle with the agenda of trying to remain relevant,” tweeted Jakhar.

Hours later, the party’s state affairs secretary in-charge Asha Kumari also dismissed the reports and tweeted, “As Incharge Punjab Affairs, I completely uphold Punjab president Sunil Jakhar ji’s views on the conjectures of Congress and AAP alliance in Punjab! These baseless rumours merit no attention.”

Congress had swept the 2017 state assembly polls, followed by series of victories in the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bye-election, civic body polls, and recently in Shahkot assembly bypoll. As of now, Congress has two-third majority in the 117-member Vidhan Sabha, with AAP as principal opposition party with just 20 seats, while SAD has just 14 and BJP three. AAP’s ally, Lok Insaaf Party has two seats in its share.

Congress has all along been maintaining that it doesn’t need an alliance with the AAP. However, ahead of the assembly polls, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who was the then state Congress president, had time and again called for all like-minded parties coming together against the SAD-BJP combine.

Only recently, AAP MLA and senior advocate HS Phoolka had warned his party of parting ways if it enters into any coalition with the Congress.

Phoolka had maintained that the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case was a serious issue and assume huge importance for him, and there can be no compromise on the issue. “If AAP joins a Congress-led coalition, I will not hesitate, even for a moment, to sever ties with the party,” he had said.

Notably, the opposition parties displayed a show of strength during the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy in Bengaluru. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was among those who attended the swearing-in ceremony at the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru.

Other notable attendees were UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati, TD president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, among others.

Their presence on one platform was seen as a prelude to a possible grand alliance against the Narendra Modi-powered BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.