The Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday announced that Balbir Singh Jakhar will be its candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha election from the West Delhi constituency.
On the other hand, Congress sources said the party was warming up to the idea of an alliance.
Mr. Jakhar, the president of the Dwarka Court Bar Association, has been associated with the party since its formation. On March 2, AAP had announced the names of its candidates for six of the seven Lok Sabha seats in the Capital. The party has now finalised its list.
Making the announcement, AAP convener Gopal Rai said the Congress had taken too much time deciding on the alliance with AAP in Delhi and in other States.
He said the party could not spend any more time waiting for the Congress that was in a “state of confusion”.
“We approached the non-BJP allied parties with a request to come together to defeat the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo. However, the Congress does not seem to be serious about defeating them. On the other hand, we need to start campaigning to defeat the BJP in Delhi on our own, which we believe we can do,” Mr. Rai said. The internal survey by AAP stated that the Congress had 7-7.5% of the vote share and had already lost the “Hindu vote”, and its situation was not looking good with minority voters as well, he added.
“After Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh victories, the Congress was looking strong with the Muslim votes but over the past three months, the indecisiveness of the party has shown people that it was not serious about contesting in Delhi and only AAP that can defeat the BJP,” Mr. Rai said.
He, however, did not rule out talks with the Congress and said if they approached AAP with some level of seriousness, there could be an alliance. “We never opened the doors fully nor have we shut them fully. However, we do not think Congress is serious about the alliance as it is only talking to the media about it,” Mr. Rai said.
The Congress and AAP could have tied up to win 35 seats in Delhi, Chandigarh, Goa, Haryana, and Punjab, which could have made a major difference in defeating the Modi-Shah duo, he said. “But for the past three months, the Congress has not been serious about defeating the BJP,” he added.
Rahul to take final call
Congress sources said AICC general secretary in-charge for Delhi P.C. Chacko was to meet Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday. Mr. Gandhi was supposed to take a final decision on the alliance but the meeting had not taken place, they said, adding that 14 district presidents of the Delhi Congress had said they would agree with whatever the high command decided and five past DPCC presidents had also agreed for a tie-up. It was only DPCC president Sheila Dikshit who needed to be convinced by Mr. Gandhi, sources added.
