AAP to contest LS polls alone

| | NEW DELHI
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AAP to contest LS polls alone

Saturday, 19 January 2019 | Staff Reporter | NEW DELHI

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to chart its own course and contest next general elections alone. The AAP leadership out the possibility of any alliance with Congress for Lok Sabha polls and added it will field candidates on all Parliamentary constituencies in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana. Senior AAP leader and party’s Delhi unit convener Gopal Rai said on Friday the decision came in the wake of the recent statements of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit, opposing an alliance with the AAP.

 Ending months of speculation, the AAP  finally ruled out any truck with Congress in the next Lok Sabha Elections.

“In the interest of the country, we were ready to drink the poison of Congress, but the statements show that the Congress is still seeped in its arrogance. The AAP will contest all Lok Sabha seats in the three states on its own,” Rai said while addressing the media.

Meanwhile,  former Delhi Chief Minister and newly appointed president of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC), Sheila Dikshit refused to comment on the development .“I do not have to react on what he said. It’s his opinion,” she said.

However, Rai exuded confidence that AAP in collaboration with “like-minded” parties in the country, will defeat the BJP in Delhi and get a new Government installed at the Centre.

He said the “vision” of an alliance with Congress came into being on suggestions of leaders like Mamata Banerjee, MK Stalin, Chandrababu Naidu and Farooq Abdullah.

“Like-minded leaders like Farooq Abdullah, M K Stalin, Chandrababu Naidu, Mamata Banerjee among others stressed that despite disagreements with Congress, we (AAP) should fight the elections together in the interest of the country,” he said.

The AAP, despite objections of its Delhi and Punjab units, was ready to go with Congress to end the “dictatorship of Modi-Shah combine” and to save the Constitution, he said.

“The way Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh issued statement that AAP has no takers in Punjab and Sheila Dikshit said that Congress is a national party and it can not ally with a small party like AAP, made it clear that Congress kept its arrogance above the interest of the country.”

Delhi Congress working president Devender Yadav said AAP’s decision proved that only it was vying for an alliance for the coming polls.      “They were running after us for an alliance and now rejecting it. It shows that they had interest in it and when we declined, they backed out,” Yadav said. He said that Delhi Congress is of firm view that it will contest Lok Sabha polls alone.

The AAP, which is the main opposition party in Punjab, will launch its campaign for Lok Sabha polls in the state with a rally in Barnala on January 20 which will be attended by party chief Arvind Kejriwal.  

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