After seven Rajya Sabha MPs switched over to the BJP from AAP, the Congress, once an alliance partner of AAP, has launched a barrage of statements against the Delhi-based party, 10 months ahead of the Punjab elections, where AAP is in power and remains the main challenger to the Congress.
At the heart of the rivalry is the fact that both parties cater largely to the same, predominantly secular electorate. This overlap has often split the anti-BJP vote, helping the BJP gain an electoral advantage in several contests.
Criticising AAP more acutely after its leaders switched to the BJP, AICC treasurer Ajay Maken said he tried to calculate the net worth of the seven MPs, but the sum was mind-boggling. “So, I settled for an average. And it crosses ₹818 crore per MP,” Maken said. Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters in Delhi, he also framed the development as the coming together of the BJP’s Team A and its “B team”.
He further pointed to the mass defection as evidence of what he called a deeper nexus, alleging that the BJP had created AAP as a proxy to counter the Congress, something it was unable to do effectively till 2014.
The 2024 alliance was forged with the idea of countering a common adversary. However, a section of the Congress has long remained anti-AAP, particularly because AAP’s anti-corruption campaign, before it formally became a political party, dented the Congress nationally, which was in power at the Centre at that time, and contributed to the BJP gaining wider acceptance among the electorate.
The AAP not only dethroned the Congress in Delhi in 2014 but also eroded its base nationally. It went on to defeat the Congress again in Punjab, eating into its core electorate. Congress leaders also believe that AAP has contributed to the party’s shrinking footprint in Gujarat and was partly responsible for its defeats in Goa and Haryana, where AAP candidates in some seats polled more votes than the Congress’s margin of defeat.
Several senior leaders had earlier warned the Gandhi leadership that AAP’s rise could directly shrink the Congress’s political space. During the Haryana elections, the Congress appeared indecisive, caught between alliance talks with AAP and going solo, eventually choosing the latter, a move that also hurt its prospects.
Now, with AAP confined to power in Punjab and perceived to be weakening elsewhere, the Congress appears keen to make a concerted push against it. “Punjab is the best place where the Congress can hit AAP the way AAP has hurt the Congress in several states. But the party there is going through factionalism, and unless it contains that, it would be difficult for it to regain its electoral space," a Congress leader said.
Ajay Maken, considered close to the Gandhi leadership and serving as AICC treasurer, has himself seen his electoral trajectory in Delhi impacted by AAP’s rise. This, party insiders suggest, is one reason he has repeatedly targeted AAP, especially during moments when the party appears vulnerable.
During the Delhi Assembly elections, Maken had called Arvind Kejriwal “anti-national” and said he would prove it. However, ahead of a planned press conference, the Congress leadership reportedly asked him to hold back, given that AAP was still part of the INDIA bloc. According to party insiders, Kejriwal had reached out to a sitting chief minister within the Opposition alliance, urging intervention to dissuade the Congress from going ahead with the presser.
AICC general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh, after Maken's attack on AAP, echoed Maken’s claims on X, writing: “Today my colleague Ajay Maken exposed the BJP-AAP nexus in a clinical manner. The Modi Govt is so rattled and nervous by his revelations that it has forced Instagram to block one chunk of his press conference that had been posted by him as well as by the INC itself. What are the BJP-AAP duo afraid of?”
