Claims, counterclaims by Cong, AAP on soliciting possible seat sharing arrangement

There were claims and counterclaims by leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress today over soliciting a possible seat-sharing arrangement in the Lok Sabha polls.

"On 'so called' offer of AAP to Congress for 3 seats, look at my reply to (Arvind) Kejriwal," tweeted Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) chief Ajay Maken.

"When the people of Delhi are continuously rejecting the Kejriwal government, why should we come to their rescue? After all, Kejriwal with team Anna supported by RSS, helped in creating this monster of Modi," he alleged.

Yesterday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had praised former prime minister Manmohan Singh. He had earlier reviled Singh during his anti-graft campaign for the Lokpal and later during the 2013 Delhi Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.

This led to speculations in political circles that the two parties were cosying up to each other to put up a united fight against the BJP.

Reacting to Maken's tweet, AAP spokesperson Dilip Pandey said it was the Congress that had approached the AAP and not the other way around.

"@Ajaymaken ji, some senior Congress leaders are in touch with the Aam Aadmi Party and they want our help in Punjab and Haryana, in return want a seat in Delhi," Pandey tweeted responding to Maken's tweet.

Two AAP leaders ruled out talks with the Congress at this moment, saying that the two parties were currently fighting for the same set of voters.

Formed in November 2012, the AAP won 28 seats in the 2013 Assembly polls, defeating the Congress which bagged only 8 seats.

The BJP bagged 33.07 per cent votes while the Congress and the AAP secured 24.59 per cent and 29.49 per cent votes respectively.

In 2015 Assembly polls, the BJP could barely win three seats and its vote share was 32.19 per cent, a decline of 0.88 per cent in comparison to its show in 2013.

However, the Congress fared the worst as it secured only 9.65 per cent votes and could not even open an account, while the AAP got 54.3 per cent votes and bagged 67 out 70 seats.