Congress leader Ajay Maken in his interview with Hindustan Times expressed that Congress will find it difficult to win seats without the Congress-AAP alliance. Maken said that had there been an alliance, they (Congress and AAP) would have won all seven seats with a margin of 2-3 lakh each, but now without any alliance, Congress will not be able to win all seven seats.
“Had there been an alliance, we would have won on all seven Delhi seats by margins of 2-3 lakh each. Now, we won’t win all seven seats and the margins will be smaller,” Maken said. He further added that while people do not have much confidence in Aam Aadmi Party candidates, “some of them have made their mark.” However, he dismissed AAP saying that Congress is in direct competition with BJP, which is a national party, and not AAP.
Maken has been quite vocal in supporting the AAP-Congress alliance in Delhi which, after a lot of deliberations between the two parties, was called off. Earlier he had expressed unwillingness to contest Lok Sabha elections in absence of an alliance with AAP. Even then he had said that without an alliance with AAP, it would be difficult to win ‘all seven’ seats in Delhi.
He had said that he would support an alliance with AAP even if he is not given a ticket to contest. Maken’s pro-alliance stance was opposed by former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit. She had very categorically said that an alliance with AAP would be impossible to work through.
Ajay Maken is contesting the high profile New Delhi seat and is pitted against BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi who defeated him in 2014 elections whereas AAP has fielded Brijesh Goyal. Amusingly, ground reports suggest that instead of a triangular fight on New Delhi seat, AAP seems to be transferring its votes to Congress. There are rumours that while the alliance is officially off, AAP could go easy on Congress so that there could be a chance of post-poll alliance and AAP could try and stay relevant for a few more years.
With voting already at its peak and the new government is about 20 days away, Congress seems to have already given up the fight and conceded defeat. Few days back, Congress leader and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath had put the figure of total seats Congress might win in Lok Sabha elections at 122, which is nowhere close to the halfway mark of 272.
