AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday accused the Congress of secretly helping the BJP.

Reacting to an announcement by Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit that there would be no alliance between the AAP and the Congress for the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, Mr Kejriwal tweeted: “At a time when the whole country wants to defeat Modi-Shah duo, Cong is helping BJP by splitting anti-BJP vote. Rumours r that Cong has some secret understanding wid BJP. Delhi is ready to fight against Cong-BJP alliance. People will defeat this unholy alliance.”

Later, AAP Delhi convenor Gopal Rai said at a press conference that the AAP was ready to “drink the poison” of aligning with the Congress in the “interest of the country”, but the latter had shown that it was more interested in saving itself, rather than the country.

Congress sources said though the Delhi unit of the party was against a tie-up, a survey by the party had found that with an alliance, the AAP-Congress combine would get 52% share of the votes and if they fought it out alone, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would win all seven seats. However, with the State election due in eight months, majority of the leaders were against the tie-up.