Lok Sabha polls: AAP to go it alone in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana

Ananya Panda
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 18

Bringing to rest all talks of an alliance, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday dubbed the Congress “toxic” and announced that it will go alone in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana for the Lok Sabha elections.

AAP’s Delhi convener Gopal Rai said in Punjab the party will begin its Lok Sabha campaign on January 20 in Barnala with a rally of national convener Arvind Kejriwal against the high electricity rates in Punjab as compared to Delhi.

Rai took strong exception to recent statements of Capt Amarinder Singh and Sheila Dikshit, saying the Congress despite being decimated in Delhi has a “big ego”.

Delhi’s ruling party is nurturing a dream to defeat the incumbent BJP on all seven Lok Sabha seats of the capital with Rai cautioning people of the national capital not to be victim of division of votes.

He said the AAP has been against the policies of the Congress from day one and followed by a movement against the latter’s “corruption”, the AAP decimated the ruling Sheila Dikshit government to zero in Delhi.

However, the party was considering possibilities of going with the Congress despite all differences keeping in mind the sentiments of like-minded parties for keeping the Bharatiya Janata Party away from power even as it was like drinking poison, said Rai.

After like-minded people, including Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah and MK Stalin (Dravida Munnetra Kajhagam) saw a tie-up as part of plan to get rid of the BJP, the party started looking at the vision for Delhi and Punjab, said the AAP leader.

“But the statements by Capt Amarinder Singh that the opposition in Punjab doesn’t have any viability and Sheila Dikshit saying the Congress is a national party and it doesn’t have to bargain with the AAP, reflects the party’s ego.

“In view of the prevailing situation, the AAP has decided to contest alone on all seats in the three states and UT,” said Rai adding the AAP would help the like-minded parties in forming an anti-BJP alternative in the centre.

The campaign in Delhi will be intensified and soon candidates for various seats will be announced, Rai said requesting the electorate to vote for the broom and not fall into the trap of “vote-cutter party” at a time when the Congress has brought back Sheila Dikshit to resurrect its prospects in Delhi.

The Delhi minister also slammed the three times former Delhi CM over her recent interview in which she wondered how can electricity be so cheap and water free and her party would enquire into the reasons saying it cannot happen if there would be a deal with private discoms and water mafia.