AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said his party was not holding alliance talks with the Congress, hours after a leader of his party proposed a “formula” for a tie-up.
The conflicting comments of Delhi chief minister Kejriwal and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh came against the backdrop of Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit urging Rahul Gandhi not to align with the AAP.
“The Congress has refused to align (with us), we are not in talks with them. These stories are being planted by the Congress,” Kejriwal told reporters in the evening.
Singh, a key negotiator in alliance talks, had met NCP president Sharad Pawar, who is mediating between the AAP and the Congress, at the veteran Maharashtra leader’s residence in Delhi earlier in the day, soon after Pawar had held discussions with Rahul and the Congress’s Lok Sabha leader, Mallikarjun Kharge.
The meetings took place in the light of reports that Delhi Congress chief Sheila had written to Rahul, advising against an alliance with the AAP. The Congress general secretary in charge of Delhi, P.C. Chacko, had sought the views of 52,000 party members in Delhi on the possibility of a tie-up.
After the meeting with Pawar, Singh told The Telegraph: “I told him that if the Congress is ready and wants to stop the BJP from endangering the Constitution and the federal structure, we have a three-state formula for an alliance (with the Congress) in Punjab and Delhi, and with both the (Dushyant Chautala-led) Jannayak Janta Party and (the Congress) in Haryana.
“In Delhi, the Congress can fight two (of the seven seats), and we will contest five…. We can speak of seats in the other two states if talks start.”
But hours later, AAP Delhi convener and minister Rai rubbished talks of an alliance.
“On principle we had decided to join an alliance…. But the Congress’s dilly-dallying in Delhi has confused not only Congress workers but also all anti-BJP voters here…. We have decided that the AAP will defeat the BJP on its own strength,” Rai said.
He added that the AAP would support an Opposition alliance after the Lok Sabha elections if they staked claim to form the government.
