Former Convenor of the Delhi unit of the Aam Aadmi Party, Dilip L. Pandey, has claimed that informal discussions between the Congress party and AAP have begun for a possible alliance ahead of the 2019 General Elections. He claimed that senior Congress leaders have contacted his party and sought their cooperation in Haryana, Delhi and Punjab.
.@ajaymaken जी! कांग्रेस के कुछ वरिष्ठ नेता ‘आम आदमी पार्टी’ के संपर्क में हैं, और वे हरियाणा, दिल्ली और पंजाब में हमारा साथ/सहयोग चाहते हैं, और दिल्ली में हमसे वे एक सीट मांग रहें हैं. https://t.co/q8v6Xyujr1
— Dilip K. Pandey (@dilipkpandey) June 1, 2018
Other reports have also hinted at a possible alliance between the two. ANI reports that informal discussions between the two parties began on the 24th of may with Jairam Ramesh and Ajay Maken representing the Congress. The same report mentions that the Congress has demanded 3 seats for itself in Delhi while Arvind Kejriwal’s party is willing to concede only 2. Manak Gupta, journalist with News 24, has also claimed that discussions are on between the two parties. According to him, the Congress wants the AAP to leave Punjab while the latter wants the Congress to quit Delhi.
AAP और कांग्रेस के बीच समझौते पर बातचीत तो चल रही है. प्रस्तावित फ़ॉर्म्युला – AAP पंजाब छोड़ दे कांग्रेस के लिए. कांग्रेस दिल्ली छोड़ दे AAP के लिए. मक़सद – BJP के ख़िलाफ़ वोट न बँटे.
— Manak Gupta (@manakgupta) June 1, 2018
Rebel AAP leader, Kapil Mishra, had claimed in March that Arvind Kejriwal will dump the Punjab unit of the party and ally with the Congress for the Lok Sabha elections. It will be interesting to see how Arvind Kejriwal explains the alliance with the Congress, if it materializes, to his supporters. During his rise to power, he had made a series of allegations against numerous politicians from the Congress as well as the BJP allegations for which he had to issue apologies to those concerned. In the past, Arvind Kejriwal had also promised to pursue allegations of corruption against Sheila Dikshit, former Delhi CM. Moreover, in his book, senior Congress leader, Salman Khurshid, has slammed the AAP Supremo and accused him of launching a false and malicious campaign against Dikshit and accused him of holding Delhi on ransom.
The alliance between the Congress and AAP is entirely possible and it has already happened once in the past when Arvind Kejriwal formed the government in Delhi with outside support from the Congress party. And that was after the Delhi Chief Minister had sworn by his children that he won’t take support from either the Congress or the BJP. Moreover, as the recent alliance between JD(S) and the Congress party in Karnataka and the United Opposition in Uttar Pradesh suggests, Narendra Modi’s credibility as the great Unifier is likely to receive a further boost with an alliance between the two former rivals increasingly likely.
