Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday that Congress has “more or less” ruled out an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, a day after he met the Congress President in a meeting of opposition leaders.

Responding to a question on an alliance with the Congress, he said it has “more or less ruled out the alliance (with AAP)”. The Lok Sabha elections are due in April-May this year.

Asked whether the AAP was more eager for an alliance with the Congress, he said the BJP would benefit in a three-cornered contest. “It is important to put up a united front against the BJP in Lok Sabha elections. Anti-BJP vote should not be divided,” Kejriwal said.

In their effort to put up a united anti-BJP front for the Lok Sabha elections, top opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee Wednesday agreed to work together to prepare a common minimum programme to oust the Modi government and to consider forging a pre-poll alliance.

The ruling BJP has often made fun of the disparate parties coming together calling it a ‘mahamilawat’. Prime Minster Narendra Modi took a dig at the opposition parties saying the elusive grand-alliance is a “mahamilawat” (adulteration), which the people will reject in the elections.

“The people of India have seen the work a government with a full majority can do. They have seen the work of NDA. They do not want a ‘mahamilawat’ government of those who assembled in Kolkata,” PM Modi said in a reference to the rally of 23 opposition parties in West Bengal last month.

“In 2014, the people of the country elected a government with full majority and the country experiences what happens when there is a ‘milawati’ (coalition) government. Now, they are planning ‘mahamilawat’. This ‘mahamilawat’ is not going to reach here (in Delhi). Keep this limited to Kolkata,” he said.

First Published: Feb 14, 2019 14:21 IST