AAP-Congress poll tieup hopes in Delhi die

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday rejected the Congress proposal for an alliance in Delhi, bringing to an end the long stressed negotiations for a tieup for the Lok Sabha elections.

While the Congress wanted three seats in the national capital, it was not in the favour of sharing seats with the AAP in Haryana and Punjab.

AAP MP Sanjay Singh who was mediating the alliance talks told IANS: "The AAP rejected the Congress proposal as it was impractical and wrong. The Congress is trying to benefit the BJP and help it in states, including UP, Bihar, West Bengal, Delhi and Kerala."

He said the Congress was not ready for an alliance with the AAP in Punjab, where the Arvind Kejriwal-led party has four MPs and 20 MLAs. "They were neither ready for an alliance in Chandigarh where we received 1.5 lakh votes, nor in Goa where we account for 6 per cent of the vote share," Singh said.

He also criticised the Congress for not agreeing to an alliance in Haryana where it has only one MP. "After not agreeing to any of our offers, they expected us to give them three seats (in Delhi), where they have no MP or MLA," he said.

The AAP MP said the Congress proposal was intended to help the BJP. "We rejected it. Together we could have defeated the BJP. I don't understand why they are not ready," he wondered.

Explaining the need for an alliance, AAP leader Gopa Rai said, "We wanted to prevent the BJP from getting 33 seats -- 13 in Punjab, Haryana (10), Goa (2), Chandigarh (1) and Delhi (7). The opposition must unite to stop it. This was our stand since day one. But the Congress has been making excuses."

The AAP has announced its candidates for the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, going to polls on May 12. THe party said it was confident of winning all the seven seats in Delhi.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the AAP had secured second position in all the seven seats and the Congress came third.

--IANS

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