Delhi Cong leaders, workers not in favour of alliance with AAP: Maken

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The Congress's Delhi unit today ruled out the possibility of forming any alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a day after leaders of the two parties made claims and counterclaims over soliciting a possible seat-sharing arrangement in the Lok Sabha polls.

"The Congress workers and leaders are not in favour of any alliance with the AAP," Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) chief Ajay Maken said.

Maken said that no party worker or leader wants any alliance with the AAP at a time when the graph of the Kejriwal government is "declining fast" and that of the Congress "going up".

"All leaders and workers of the Congress in Delhi do not want any alliance with Kejriwal party due to two reasons. First, the popularity of Kejriwal is fast declining as his government is not working. The other reason is that the AAP is responsible for creating the monster of Modi," Maken told reporters.

The talks about possibility of an alliance between the two parties began yesterday with Maken and AAP leader Dilip Pandey taking to Twitter to make claims and counterclaims about who approached whom.

"The AAP got 56-57 per cent votes in the 2015 Assembly elections that fell to 26 per cent in MCD polls last year. The Congress on the other hand got 9.5 per cent votes in 2015 that went up to 22 per cent in MCD polls which shows party's graph is rising in Delhi," he said.

"The people of Delhi are rejecting the AAP on issues of power, water and education. The Congress workers and leaders feel there is no reason to support them," said Maken.

"Arvind Kejriwal is the person who stood with the likes of Baba Ramdev, General V K Singh, and Kiran Bedi during Anna movement and raised the monster of Modi," he charged.

"We can go for a secular alliance but how can we have alliance with those who raised the demon of Modi and spoke against Congress in the company of Baba Ramdev and Kiran Bedi," he asked.

On speculations of a possible seat-sharing arrangement between the AAP and the Congress for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP yesterday said it was undeterred by such a move.

Maken had borached the topic of alliance replying to a "so called offer" of three Lok Sabha seats to Congress by the AAP, in a tweet.

Reacting to it, AAP spokesperson Dilip Pandey had 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.

The AAP has announced the names of incharges for the five out of seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. It has yet to decide the names of incharges for remaining two seats.

The last time the Congress and the AAP had come together to outwit the BJP following the 2013 Assembly elections in Delhi. Short of majority, the AAP that bagged 28 seats, but formed government with the support of the Congress which had got eight seats.