Not Alliance With Arvind kejriwal in National Capital, Announces Sheila Dikshit After Meeting With Rahul Gandhi.

NewDelhi: The Aam Aadmi Party and Congress  will not enter into an alliance for the upcoming general elections 2019 , the Congress’ ex CM & Delhi  unit chief Sheila Dikshit announced on Tuesday. The decision came after Congress president  Rahul Gandhi called a meeting of all leaders of the Delhi unit to discuss the possibility of an alliance, days after the AAP announced six candidates for seven seats in Delhi, three of which are being seen as serious contenders.

 

Both the parties were forced to return to the drawing board to re-calibrate their electoral strategy post the Pulwama attacks and the cross-border retaliatory air strikes by the Indian Air Force 26/2  last month.

 

The formula under discussion was to share three seats each out of seven up for grabs in the national capital. For one seat, the two parties are in talks to field a joint candidate. Names of former Union minister Yashwant Sinha and ex Bollywood star and BJP Patna Sahib Sitting MP Shatrughan Sinha were being discussed. 

 

The AAP had been sending feelers to the Congress leadership for a pre-poll tie-up for quite a while, but was rebuffed. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had in a recent public meeting said that he was “tired” of convincing the Congress for an alliance in the Lok Sabha elections to defeat the BJP, but it was not understanding the issue.

 

“We are tired of convincing the Congress to form an alliance, but they do not understand. If there is an alliance, the BJP will lose all the seven Lok Sabha seats it currently has in Delhi,” CM Kejriwal said at a recent rally. “I don’t know what they have in their minds,” he further said.

 

The efforts to bring the AAP and the Congress together were emphasised upon by other opposition parties as well. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Andhra Pradesh CM  Chandra Babu Naidu have spoken to the Congress on the issue.

 

The talks between the two parties were being seen as an attempt to enhance the index of opposition unity to squeeze the BJP in states where the ruling party drew maximum numbers in the last elections. BJP won all seven seats in Delhi in general elections 2014.