Cong, AAP stick to guns on alliance

NEW DELHI: A day after AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and Congress president Rahul Gandhi blamed each other for breakdown in long-drawn talks for an electoral pact, the Congress today dug its heels on tucking with the AAP only in the national capital even as the Delhi''s ruling party agreed to negotiate with the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), which had refused any pact with the Congress, in Haryana.

Ananya Panda

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 16

A day after AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and Congress president Rahul Gandhi blamed each other for breakdown in long-drawn talks for an electoral pact, the Congress today dug its heels on tucking with the AAP only in the national capital even as the Delhi's ruling party agreed to negotiate with the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), which had refused any pact with the Congress, in Haryana.

The AAP also gave feelers of agreeing with the Congress in having an alliance in Delhi, but the ratio of seats has to be 5:2, whereas in case the arrangement is worked out for both in Delhi and Haryana, the alliances can be with 4:3 ratio of seats in Delhi - as proposed by the Congress - and 6:3:1 in Haryana with the JJP having one seat.

The AAP today discussed the matter in a meeting convened by Kejriwal and formally assigned Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh to take the negotiations forward with the grand old party, but the Congress as of date is in no mood to stitch alliance with the AAP in other states claiming that the latter's prospects will have "no bearing" on poll results there.

This evening, All India Congress Committee in-charge of Delhi PC Chacko conveyed the party's stand to Singh that it will field its nominee on all the seven parliamentary seats of Delhi though it indicated that doors for alliance in the national capital are open till declaration of candidates.

"We are compelled to proceed on our own in Delhi as there was no response in the form of a reasonable proposition for alliance from the AAP. I have communicated the same this evening that we will contest on the seven seats in Delhi. As there is little time left for campaigning and nominations have begun we will soon declare our candidates. Till then the AAP can rethink," Chacko told The Tribune.

Earlier, the AAP stuck to its guns when it pushed for having a broader alliance with the Congress, something the latter has described "impractical". As per the AAP, to rout the Narendra Modi-led BJP in the Lok Sabha elections they need to unite not just in Delhi, but adjacent states too.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said Gandhi must delegate someone who can sit with the AAP to chalk out a strategy to defeat the BJP on all 18 seats of Delhi, Haryana and Chandigarh while Singh expressed AAP's keenness to convince the JJP for coming on board with the Congress in Haryana for elections.

Singh, while taking a dig at Gandhi, said, "Rahul Gandhi needs to understand that alliance talks cannot happen through Twitter. We are ready to take all possible steps to defeat the Modi-Amit Shah duo...."

However, the Congress sees the move coupled as one to deflect attention and accuses the AAP of not being serious in forming alliance.