AAP and the Ajay Chautala faction in Haryana have hinted the possibility of a poll alliance. (Source: File Photo)In an effort to blunt the BJP’s narrative of an unspoken understanding between the Congress and AAP, the Arvind Kejriwal-led party has launched an all-out campaign projecting the Congress party as an insignificant force in the city’s politics.
The party has started issuing daily statements, urging people to keep in mind that voting for the Congress will end up weakening the AAP, and ensure BJP’s victory. Kejriwal has, however, emphasised that his party will “win all the seven seats” in the 2019 general elections in Delhi.
On Saturday, Kejriwal sought to explain the “mathematics” behind the stand that voting for the Congress was akin to voting for the BJP to party workers from east Delhi, who had gathered at his residence as part of his ongoing series of meetings from functionaries from across all the seven constituencies.
“In the last Lok Sabha elections, BJP received 46 per cent of the votes, the AAP managed to attract 33 per cent and the Congress was a distant third, garnering just 15 per cent of the vote share. Today, every survey shows that the BJP is set to lose more than 10 per cent of its vote share. Now, if this 10 per cent vote went to the Congress, the BJP would still win as then the Congress would stand at 25 per cent, the AAP at 33 per cent and the BJP at 36 per cent,” Kejriwal said.
The AAP chief had made similar comments during a meet with party workers in south Delhi on Friday as well. AAP’s Delhi convenor Gopal Rai said party volunteers will take the “electoral mathematics” shared by Kejriwal to the people.
In his speech on Saturday, Kejriwal also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah are taking forward the “train of corruption started by the Congress”. “The faces have changed but corruption remains. We all need to come together to free this country of the evils of corruption. We have done it before, when we overthrew the corrupt Congress regime in the last general elections. But even bigger corrupt forces have come to power,” the AAP chief said.
Sources from both Congress and AAP had been claiming that the two sides are in seat-sharing talks, however, the situation has seen a dramatic shift in the last one week, with both sides issuing public statements against each other.
Incidentally, Kejriwal has so far not directly ruled out the possibility of an alliance with the Congress. Whenever quizzed by reporters, he has maintained that the AAP will “let you know when the time comes”. His party has declared six Lok Sabha in-charges so far, who are likely to be made the candidates for the upcoming polls as well.
The new leadership of Congress’ Delhi unit, led by former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, has also ruled out any alliance with the AAP, which had decimated it in the 2015 assembly polls, reducing its tally to zero in the state assembly.
