TMC, Samajwadi Party back AAP for Assembly elections

The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC and Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) on Wednesday openly threw their weight behind Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections.

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With this, ties between AAP and Congress, which are part of the INDIA bloc at the national level, appeared to have strained further.

“The TMC has announced support to AAP in the Delhi elections. I am personally grateful to Mamta Didi. Thank you Didi. You have always supported and blessed us in our good and bad times,” the former Delhi Chief Minister wrote in a post on X.

After former Rajasthan CM and Congress veteran Ashok Gehlot described AAP as Congress rival in Delhi and said it was harbouring a misconception that it would win again, Kejriwal hit back saying the Congress and the BJP are working in “secret cooperation”.

Speaking to the media, Gehlot said: “They (the AAP) are our opposition. They are harbouring a misconception since they won twice (in Delhi)... the voters’ mood seems to have changed now. The Congress is campaigning well and we may see good results this time.”

In response to Gehlot’s remark, Kejriwal said in a post on X, “Gehlot ji. You made it clear that AAP is the opposition to the Congress in Delhi. You remained silent on the BJP. People also felt that AAP is the opposition for the Congress and the BJP is its partner. People also believed that the BJP and the Congress are fighting the elections together against AAP. Till now, this cooperation between you two was secret. Today, you have made it public. Thank you on behalf of the people of Delhi for this clarification.”

While the Congress and AAP went hand-in-hand for the Lok Sabha elections, both parties are contesting individually across the 70-member Delhi Assembly.

While AAP contested the recently held Haryana Assembly elections, it did not participate in the Maharashtra and Jharkhand Assembly elections. However, the AAP chief and the party extended support and campaigned for the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which consisted of the National Congress Party – Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena – Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and the Congress.

AAP and the Congress had held long talks regarding alliance in Haryana. However, the latter’s camp in the state did not agree for fighting the elections jointly. AAP contested on 11 seats in Haryana, but failed to win any seats.

Following a defeat in Haryana, the party supremo announced that AAP would not form an alliance with the Congress. He had once again reiterated his stance after close door talks were whispered in Delhi.

The Congress has been in tatters after being rooted out from power in 2013. In 2015 and 2020 Assembly elections, the party did not have a representation. In the upcoming Assembly elections, the Congress will try to make a comeback in the national capital.

In a major setback to the opposition bloc last month, AAP had said that it would urge members of the INDIA bloc to expel the Congress if it fails to take action against its Delhi leader Ajay Maken.

“The Congress is doing everything to ensure that the BJP benefits in the election. Ajay Maken reads the BJP script, makes statements at the BJP’s behest and targets AAP leaders on BJP’s instructions. He crossed all limits and called our leader Arvind Kejriwal an anti-national,” AAP MP Sanjay Singh had then said.

Meanwhile, sources said the Shiv Sena-UBT was in touch with the AAP and was likely to support the party for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections.