AAP ally says no to tie-up with Congress

NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal reached out to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday, proposing he join the alliance between AAP and Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), even as his Haryana ally shot down the proposal. Hoping for a change of stand, Kejriwal extended an olive branch to Rahul earlier in the day. “People of Delhi will fight like Telangana did for getting their state. The BJP should not test us…. Delhi will not get statehood without sacrifices. The Prime Minister has cheated Delhi,”  Kejriwal said, addressing crowd at the party office. 

“I have a proposal for Rahul Gandhi to form an alliance of JJP-AAP-Congress in Haryana so that we defeat BJP in all 10 seats in Haryana. It’ll play a big role in defeating the Modi-Shah duo at the national level. In Delhi, we will win without the Congress.”  

Kejriwal’s party supported JJP’s candidate in the Jind bypolls in January this year. “I want to tell Manoj Tiwari (Delhi BJP president) and his party’s government that you are nobody to decide about statehood for Delhi. Full statehood for Delhi is the right of the people. Grant it, otherwise the people of Delhi know how to snatch it,” he warned. 

Within minutes of Kejriwal’s comments, the JJP said it could “never have any truck” with the Congress. “The JJP has been formed on the ideology of late Choudhary Devi Lal, who has always fought against Congress, so JJP will never enter into any alliance with the Congress and will not be part of any alliance which includes Congress,” JJP’s national general secretary KC Bangar said.Later, former Haryana chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the decision to go with the AAP would be decided by the party high command. “The JJP does not have any existence in the state. By just contesting one by-election, it does not mean that the JJP becomes relevant in the state.’’ 

Khattar invokes Ghalib 
After Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal tweeted about coming to power in Haryana by defeating the BJP, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday replied to him, saying, Dil behlane ke liye, Ghalib, yeh khayal acha hai. “Our countrymen know the ground reality and will vote for the BJP again,” he told the media.