Rahul rejects AAP-Congress alliance in Delhi: How will parties face each other in 2020 Assembly election after Lok Sabha poll tie-up, ask party leaders

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed on Monday that Congress president Rahul Gandhi refused to forge an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi for the Lok Sabha election.

Talking to reporters at the airport in Visakhapatnam, Kejriwal said that he had met Rahul recently and the Congress leader had refused to “join hands with the AAP”. Asked about Congress’ Delhi unit president Sheila Dikshit’s remarks that Kejriwal never approached her for an alliance, the chief minister said, “We have met Rahul Gandhi. Dikshit is not that important leader."

His statement came a day after reports said Congress leaders PC Chacko and KC Venugopal had informed Dikshit of Rahul’s decision to not join hands with AAP. Dikshit was expected to make a formal announcement on Sunday, but there was no official word from the party.

Kejriwal has been urging the Congress to stitch an alliance in Delhi for the Lok Sabha polls to keep the BJP away. Leaders in the Delhi unit of the Congress were divided over the issue of an alliance, with Dikshit and her three working presidents opposing it, party sources had said.

A top source in the party had recently said that chances of alliance were “slim” considering its long term repercussions in Delhi. “The biggest question is how will Congress face the AAP in Assembly elections due in 2020 after the tie-up. Also, the party does not gain much politically as it is being offered only 2-3 seats by Kejriwal,” the source had said.

Congress had drawn a blank in the 2014 parliamentary elections in Delhi.

Dikshit’s term as a three-time chief minister ended with AAP’s rise in Delhi. She is believed to be strongly opposed to an alliance with Kejriwal’s party. In a letter written to Rahul last week, Dikshit and working presidents Haroon Yusuf, Devender Yadav and Rajesh Lilothia protested a recent phone survey to gauge workers’ mood on the alliance and warned against it.

The talk of alliance was fuelled by the fact that the Congress and AAP had jointly polled more votes than the BJP that had walked away with all the seven seats in the national capital. Delhi has 7 Lok Sabha seats and it will go to polls on 12 May.