Cong has more or less ruled out alliance with AAP: Kejriwal

The Congress had "more or less" ruled out an alliance with the AAP in the upcoming general election, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday, adding that his party was "eager" on such a pre-poll tie-up in the national capital to avoid a three-cornered contest that could help the BJP.

His comments came a day after he attended a meeting with opposition leaders, including Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

Responding to a question on an alliance with the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo said the former had "more or less" ruled it out.

"We are deeply concerned about the country. We have seen how the circumstances have changed in the last five years. Communal harmony has been damaged, demonetisation has rendered lakhs of people jobless, institutions have been destroyed and people have been lynched. That is why we are eager (for an alliance)," he said.

Sources said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu had also been pressing for a pre-poll alliance between the Congress and the AAP in Delhi.

Banerjee also noted on Thursday that the AAP was very "keen" to have an alliance with the Congress.

"Arvind Kejriwal wants an alliance with the Congress in Delhi," the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief told reporters here.

She also said she respected the decision of those parties, which could not take a call on a pre-poll alliance because of political compulsions.

However, the Congress was not keen on an alliance, AAP sources said.

"The issue came up for discussions during a meeting of opposition leaders (in Delhi) on Wednesday. Rahul Gandhi said the local unit of his party was not willing to have any tie-up with us," a senior AAP leader said.

Back-channel talks between the two parties had begun late last year, despite opposition from the Delhi Congress. A section of the AAP has also been unwilling to have any truck with the grand old party.

The parleys had halted abruptly following reports that the Delhi Assembly had passed a resolution late last year to withdraw the Bharat Ratna conferred on late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, citing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, at the behest of some AAP MLAs.

However, the top leadership of the Kejriwal-led party had disapproved of the act and the Delhi Assembly had subsequently clarified that no such resolution was passed.

But by then, the damage had been done and the talks had come to a halt.

There were again hopes of an alliance between the Congress and the AAP after Banerjee and Naidu tried to mediate between the two parties, but that also did not yield any result.

The AAP has already announced the names of its in-charges for six of the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital. They will eventually be declared as the party's candidates for the polls.