Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh met Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday to discuss the nationwide Opposition alliance for Lok Sabha elections, said sources.
The leaders also spoke about the possible seat-sharing between AAP and Congress in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab, they said.
AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, however, said there were no talks ongoing between AAP and Congress.
Speaking to the media at the sidelines of an AAP event in Laxmi Nagar here, Mr. Kejriwal said: “According to my knowledge, Congress has said no to an alliance. Now, if they are planting stories in the newspapers everyday or having meetings, what do we have to do with that? They have officially conveyed to us that they don’t want an alliance and we have no talks with them.”
‘ Mahagathbandhan ’
Soon after Mr. Singh and Mr. Pawar’s meeting, AAP Delhi convener Gopal Rai at a press conference said the party would not enter into an alliance with the Congress for Delhi’s seven Lok Sabha seats, but would be “with the mahagathbandhan ” at the national level.
Mr. Singh, also a Rajya Sabha MP, said the meeting included a discussion on the situations that could arise whether there was a “gathbandhan” or not. He added that there had been discussions in the past as well about how the parties could come together on issues plaguing the country.
“When BJP leaders are making statements, like Amit Shah said there will be no elections till 2050 and Sakshi Maharaj said there will be no elections after 2019, in order to protect the Constitution and the federal structure, when the BJP has become a threat to the country, our priority should be to come together to defeat it,” Mr. Singh said.
Though AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal has said the party would be open to an alliance in order to defeat the BJP, Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit had rejected the possibility, leading AAP to announce candidates for the Delhi seats.
Other senior leaders in the Congress, including Ajay Maken and P.C. Chacko, had spoken in favour of an alliance in Delhi.
Mr. Singh’s meeting with Mr. Pawar took place on the same day that the NCP chief met Congress president Rahul Gandhi, sources in AAP and Congress said.
An AAP source said the discussion between Mr. Singh and Mr. Pawar included the possibility of AAP contesting five seats in Delhi with the Congress contesting the remaining two.
In Haryana, the potential of AAP contesting two seats, with the Congress and Jannayak Janta Party contesting four each was discussed, the source said.
For Punjab, the leaders talked about Congress contesting 10 seats and the AAP three seats, the source said.
Meanwhile, AAP Delhi would speed up its campaign from Saturday, Mr. Rai said. He said Mr. Kejriwal would address one public meeting each in Delhi’s 70 Assembly constituencies from Saturday till April 30. When asked whether the party would align with the Congress in Delhi, Mr. Rai said: “People of Delhi and our workers are fed up and are asking us how long will you keep trying. So in Delhi, we are not doing an alliance with Congress. In the country, we will be with the mahagathbandan .”
He added that AAP leaders had been “begging, while they [Congress] had remained arrogant. In national interest, we have bent as much as we had to”.
