Congress leader Ajay Maken said on Saturday that his party should have no alliance with the AAP in Delhi, but left the option open, saying this is his personal view.
Asked whether the Congress will lend support to the Arvind Kejriwal-led party, if need be, after the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls, Maken said, "It is my personal view that there should be no alliance with AAP. I also feel that there should not have been any support (from the Congress) to the AAP in 2013 and neither any alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. But this is my personal view," the All India Congress Committee (AICC) treasurer said, without speaking any further.
The 70-member Delhi Assembly is scheduled to go to polls on February 5.
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is set to campaign in the New Delhi constituency for party candidate Sandeep Dikshit on Monday evening. Dikshit is pitted against former Delhi chief minister and AAP national convenor Kejriwal. Gandhi has already addressed a public meeting in Seelampur, his first for the Delhi polls.
This is a marked shift of the Congress's earlier stand of not campaigning against Kejriwal. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been a member of the INDIA opposition bloc, which contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls together, but failed to oust the BJP.
The Congress is seeking to strengthen itself in Delhi, where it had drawn a blank in the last Assembly polls. The party had won eight seats in Delhi in the 2013 polls.
Addressing the first press conference at the new Congress headquarters at Kotla Road, Maken, who hails from Delhi and has done his politics here, said he stands by his earlier remark that Kejriwal is "anti-national" and the AAP's strengthening in the capital will only help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Asked about his "anti-national" remark against Kejriwal, Maken said, "I had given my personal view and I still stand by it." He said the people of Delhi suffered due to the Congress's support to the AAP in 2013 and its alignment with the Kejriwal-led outfit in 2024.
"When the people of Delhi suffered, the BJP benefitted. But this is my personal view," Maken said.
On whether the Congress would still go with the AAP, he said, "I feel that Kejriwal getting prominence in Delhi helps the BJP. To fight the BJP, it is important to have a strong Congress at the national level," he said.
"By weakening the Congress, one cannot fight the BJP," he added.
Noting that Delhi is not an insignificant state politically, Maken said it is known that whichever party wins the Lok Sabha seats in the capital, goes on to form its government at the Centre.
"The AAP has failed to fight against the BJP in Delhi," he claimed.
Maken said both in Haryana and Delhi, the Congress wanted to have an alliance with the AAP, but soon after his release from jail, Kejriwal announced that his party will contest all 90 Assembly seats in Haryana, whereas "we were in an advanced stage of discussion for an alliance".
"As far as Delhi is concerned, Kejriwal himself announced soon after the Lok Sabha polls that they will fight the Delhi election on their own," he added.
Maken said when the Congress had its government in Delhi, led by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, it won all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the capital and stopped the BJP here. "By stopping them in Delhi, we stopped them from assuming power at the Centre as whosoever wins Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, goes on to form the national-level government," he noted.
"But ever since the AAP has come to power in Delhi, the opposite is happening and the BJP has been forming the government at the Centre as it has won all the seven Lok Sabha seats. Then who is with the BJP?" the Congress leader asked.
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