NEW DELHI: A day after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hosted a mega opposition rally in Delhi, its national convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the Congress "nearly said a no" on the alliance with AAP in Delhi.
Whatever the AAP's announced stand is of fighting alone in the coming LS poll, the top brass of the opposition parties are still trying to find a way to bring AAP-Congress together.
The AAP, which earlier decided to come out with the list of candidates by the mid of January, is yet to publish the list. AAP Delhi Convenor Gopal Rai earlier told the Millennium Post that the list was nearly finalised and by the first week of February the party would publish the list. However, even after two weeks the party is yet to come out with the list.
The speculation at the party level is that AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal who is leading the AAP at the opposition alliance is still having talks on the matter of alliance. "We are very worried about the nation, so we are keener (on an alliance). The Congress has almost said no to an alliance," said CM Arvind Kejriwal.
Significantly, when asked about the statement of Delhi Pradesh Congress chief Shiela Dikshit on the Supreme Court verdict, during a press conference here on Thursday, the bitter rival CM Kejriwal refused to attack Dikshit in the way he used to earlier. On Wednesday, the Delhi chief minister also had a meeting with Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the presence of other opposition leaders.
Asked if he was desperate for a tie-up with the Congress, Kejriwal said throughout the country there should be only one candidate against the BJP in every constituency as a third candidate would eat into anti-BJP votes, benefitting the ruling party. "I believe that the country is facing a challenge and (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and (BJP president Amit) Shah must be removed. For that, it is very important that against the BJP, only one candidate is put up so that the anti-BJP votes are not distributed. All should understand this," he said.
He added, "So if in Delhi two candidates fight against the BJP, the BJP will get the benefit. In UP, if a third candidate is fighting apart from the SP and BSP, it will benefit the BJP. All parties should understand this."