Kejriwal accuses Cong of weakening AAP in Delhi

NEW DELHI:Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said his Aam Aadmi Party has been tired of convincing the Congress for an alliance in Delhi for defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha polls but to no avail – a claim which was rejected by Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. File photo

Ananya Panda

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 21

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said his Aam Aadmi Party has been tired of convincing the Congress for an alliance in Delhi for defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha polls but to no avail – a claim which was rejected by Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit.

Kejriwal, who continued his tirade against Modi-Shah duo warning people against re-electing them during this Lok Sabha election, claimed the Congress is “weakening” the AAP in Delhi as it is doing with SP-BSP alliance of Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh and Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal.

“To prevent votes from getting divided in Delhi too there should be one candidate against the BJP. We are tired of convincing the Congress but it doesn’t have the intention to do so.... Don’t let votes be divided. Congress’ intentions are not good. It will only serve the purpose of cutting votes,” said the AAP supremo while explaining how the shift of 10 per cent votes that the BJP is predicted to lose will determine the fate of the parties.

In the last Lok Sabha election the BJP got 46 per cent votes, the AAP received 33 per cent and the Congress settled with 15 per cent votes and it is the 10 per cent floating votes from the BJP will win the seven seats this time, Kejriwal asserted. He cautioned people against voting for the Congress candidates in the forthcoming parliamentary election saying that voting for the Congress would mean helping the BJP to win in Delhi.

Earlier, Kejriwal while pitching for his party's prospects also intensified his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah accusing them of creating a communal-divide in the country in five years what Pakistan could not do in 70 years.

Sheila criticised Kejriwal accusing him of making false claims that the Congress has refused going with the latter’s party for the forthcoming elections.

The Congress was never approached by the Chief Minister for any tie-up, said Dikshit, adding that the AAP has reached a stage of frustration in her retort to the narrative of AAP that the Congress has refused to respond affirmatively to its proposed alliance for the Lok Sabha election.