Congress President Rahul Gandhi has refused an alliance with his party for the Lok Sabha polls: says, Arvind Kejriwal

VISAKHAPATNAM: Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal today said that Congress President Rahul Gandhi has refused an alliance with his party for the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi. Mr Kejriwal, on his way back from Visakhapatnam, was asked by reporters at the airport about Delhi Congress chief, Sheila Dikshit’s remark that she was never approached by AAP for an alliance. “We have met Rahul Gandhi. Shiela Dikshit is not that an important leader,” said Mr Kejriwal.

“There is nothing on the alliance with Congress. We had one meeting with Rahul Gandhi, where he refused to have an alliance with the AAP,” news agency IANS quoted Mr Kejriwal, who campaigned for Chandrababu Naidu at a massive rally in Andhra Pradesh yesterday. His West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee was also at the rally.

The AAP was keen on a tie-up with the Congress in Delhi, for the Lok Sabha polls, to keep the BJP away.

Leaders in Delhi Congress were however divided over an alliance, with Sheila Dikshit and her three working presidents opposed to it considering “long term repercussions”, said top party sources.

“The biggest question is how the Congress will face the AAP in Assembly elections due in 2020 after the tie up. Also, the party does not gain much politically as it is being offered only 2-3 seats by Mr Kejriwal,” the source said.

The Congress had failed win a single seat in Delhi in the 2014 parliamentary elections.

The talk of alliance was fuelled by the fact that the Congress and the AAP had jointly polled more votes than the BJP that had walked away with all the seven seats in the national capital. Delhi votes on May 12, in the sixth phase for its seven Lok Sabha constituencies.