AAP wants alliance with Congress, here's why

AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal | PTI AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal | PTI

A routine that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is following in his public meetings of late is criticising the Congress for not agreeing to an alliance in the national capital for the coming Lok Sabha elections.

The leitmotif was scrupulously adhered to when Kejriwal addressed a rally in old Delhi on Thursday, as he said, “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.”

The AAP convenor has also made it a point to stress in his speeches that the voters of Delhi should not vote for the Congress as that would amount to division of votes.

Kejriwal and his party are worried about division of votes in Delhi, and they are not being secretive about their concern in this regard. Also, there is a reason for the newbie party to be concerned about a possible split in the anti-BJP votes in the national capital, which would end up benefiting the BJP.

The AAP's keenness for an alliance in Delhi stems from the fact that even though the Congress has not won any election since the assembly poll debacle of 2015, its vote share is on the rise. And an increase in the vote percentage for the Congress is cause for worry for the AAP since Kejriwal's party had triumphed in Delhi by taking away the support base of the grand old party, especially the migrant population and the occupants of unauthorised colonies and also the minorities. So any gain for the Congress now is at the cost of the AAP, and hence the fear that the national party would end up playing the role of a spoiler since the two parties appeal to the same vote banks. In the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, the BJP had won all seven seats in Delhi, with AAP in second place in all the constituencies and the Congress standing third.

In the assembly elections of 2015, when the AAP won a dazzling 67 out of 70 seats, its vote percentage stood at a whopping 54.3 per cent. The BJP's vote share in that election was 32 per cent, while the Congress shrunk to just 9.5 per cent.

The Congress did not win the municipal elections held in 2017, in which the BJP was triumphant. But its vote share improved, climbing to 22 per cent. On the other hand, the AAP's vote percentage fell to 26 per cent.

While this statistic is the reason for the AAP's keenness to join hands with the Congress for the Lok Sabha polls, the figures are the justification being offered by the local leadership of the Congress in Delhi to oppose any truck with the AAP.

The AAP is learnt to have offered three out of the seven seats to the Congress in Delhi. But the local leadership of the Congress feels that it will be bad politics to align with the AAP at a time when, according to them, the popularity of Kejriwal and his party are on the downswing and the support for the national party is growing. It is also being stressed by Delhi Congress that an alliance with the AAP will not be acceptable to its workers.

However, according to sources in the Congress, a final call is yet to be taken on the issue of an alliance with the AAP in the national capital even though Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit and most of the party's local leaders are opposed to it. The issue is expected to come up in the meeting of opposition parties to be held on February 26, where pre-poll alliances and a common minimum programme are on the agenda. Also, the Congress Working Committee will take a final decision in the matter.