Why AAP and Congress could not work out an alliance in Delhi

Both the parties have now ruled out the possibility of an alliance

dikshit-kejriwal A combination picture of Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal | File

When veteran leader Sheila Dikshit took charge of the Delhi unit of the Congress, it was felt that the chances of an alliance between the national party and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the capital for the coming Lok Sabha elections had brightened. The reason behind this feeling was that the former DPCC chief Ajay Maken had strongly opposed an electoral tie-up between the two parties, and as he made way for Dikshit, it was expected that there would not be such a strong opposition to the idea.

However, it is now official that that the Congress and the AAP would not ally for the Lok Sabha elections, either in Delhi or in Punjab or Haryana, with first Dikshit and then AAP's Gopal Rai, who is in charge of his party in the national capital, ruling out an alliance between the two parties.

According to sources in the Congress, talks were indeed on with the AAP for a potential alliance in Delhi to counter the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. The necessity for joining hands was felt on the basis of the assessment that a division of votes between the Congress and the AAP, the two parties sharing the same vote bank, would help the BJP, which had swept the seven seats in Delhi in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014.

It is learnt that the AAP, in the initial discussions, had offered the Congress two seats for the elections, and it could have agreed to leave three seats for the national party to contest in the Lok Sabha polls. AAP's keenness for an alliance in Delhi flows from the realisation that the national capital is the centrepiece in the newbie party's scheme of things. The party needs to maintain its stronghold in Delhi as its efforts to make inroads in other parts of the country depends a lot on the work that it has done in the city.

However, while the central leadership of the Congress was open to the idea of allying with the AAP, Maken was opposed to it, and he argued that the party would not gain much from the alliance; rather it would lose further ground in the capital. He insisted that the Congress's vote share had improved since its disastrous showing in the assembly elections of 2015, when it failed to win even a single seat, while the support base of the AAP had reduced. An alliance with the AAP would mean that Arvind Kejriwal's party would make gains at the Congress's cost.

Even as Dikshit replaced Maken in Delhi, what really ended all possibilities of an alliance between the two parties was the assembly session called to discuss the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. The special session, which was called in the backdrop of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar's conviction in an anti-Sikh riots case, saw AAP MLAs criticising former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in extremely harsh terms and demanding that the Bharat Ratna awarded to him be withdrawn in connection with the communal violence. There was also a controversy with regard to whether the resolution passed by the assembly also contained this demand with regard to Rajiv Gandhi.

According to Congress sources, the central leadership of the party decided against an alliance in Delhi following the assembly fiasco as it was felt that the AAP had crossed the red line by attacking the former prime minister. “What they said about Rajiv Gandhiji in the assembly, we were all badly hurt by it. They had no right to say all that,” Dikshit said after assuming charge as Delhi Congress chief.

According to a Congress leader in Delhi, the party is resigned to the prospect of the BJP benefiting in the Lok Sabha elections because of no alliance happening in the capital as the cost of the tie-up has escalated a little too much.