Rahul to blame if Modi-Shah return to power: Kejriwal

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that Congress President Rahul Gandhi will be responsible if Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns to power in the Lok Sabha polls, promising his party will do everything to stop the Shah-Modi duo in Delhi.

Speaking to the media over a possible alliance between the AAP and Congress in the national capital, he said his party would have left all the seven seats for Congress if it was in a position to win. "But the Congress cannot win even a single seat in Delhi."

"They don't have an intention (to forge an alliance). For the past two months, we have been trying for an alliance. I am saying this with huge sadness that if Modi and (BJP President Amit) Shah return to power, only one person will be responsible -- Rahul Gandhi.

"The way he is weakening the opposition in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Goa, Chandigarh and Haryana, this is not a good thing," the Delhi Chief Minister said after releasing AAP's Delhi manifesto.

He said his party was giving a tough fight to the BJP and claimed, "we can defeat the BJP in Delhi".

Kejriwal said the AAP was born amid corruption charges during Congress rule.

"The thought of an alliance with the Congress was something we could not even think of at one point. But the tough situation the country is facing made us take such a decision."

The talks between the AAP and Congress for an alliance in Delhi were on for some time but both the parties will now contest the May 12 Lok Sabha battle in Delhi on their own.

Kejriwal also slammed Rahul Gandhi for tweeting discussions related to the alliance. "Where in the world an alliance took place on Twitter or through newspaper headlines?", referring to Rahul Gandhi's tweet accusing the AAP chief of "another U turn" on the alliance.

"If they were serious about forming an alliance they should have come to the table for negotiations."

While the AAP had named its candidates last month, the Congress named all its Lok Sabha candidates in Delhi, ending any possibility of a pre-poll tie-up between the two after weeks of negotiations for giving three of the seven seats to the Congress.

"An alliance with Congress by giving them three seats would be with like forming an alliance with BJP. My conscience does not allow me to give three seats to BJP," he said.A

He also said the 2019 elections can prove a turning point in the history as this election is to save the country, democracy and the Constitution and Delhi's seven seats will play a crucial role in the governmnet formation.

"India is a 4,000-year-old country with a rich tradition. And despite diversity, India is one and its tradition has strengthened the country and given it power to face all kinds of attacks in the past.

"But today, its unity is being attacked. And if the country gets divided on the basis of religion and caste, then it will lose its centuries-old tradition."

"We will do everything to stop the Modi-Shah duo. We will support any grand alliance government. The BJP is against minorities. We are Indians first, then Hindu or Muslim," he said adding that the seven seats in Delhi will play a crucial role in the government formation at the Centre.

--IANS

nks/prs