NEW DELHI: The camaraderie witnessed between the Congress party and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) during the Delhi Lok Sabha polls this year has become a rivalry, with the Congress leader Ajay Maken calling the tie-up a “mistake”.
In a runup to the Delhi assembly polls, Congress made its intentions apparent to go full throttle against the AAP as it called Arvind Kejriwal a “Farziwal“.
Releasing a 12-point “white paper” (“Mauka Mauka, Har Baar Dhoka”) against the AAP’s governance, Ajay Maken lashed out at Kejriwal, saying his party came to power riding on the Janlokpal agitation but has failed to set up the anti-corruption ombudsman.
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“If there is one word to describe former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal here then it would be Farziwal,” Maken was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Maken asked what prevented Kejriwal from naming Janlokpal in Punjab if the lieutenant governor in Delhi stopped his government from going ahead with the anti-corruption ombudsman.
“If LG is not allowing you here, then make it in Punjab. Who is stopping you? You have a full-fledged government there, why don’t you make it there? This is just an excuse. The party (AAP) was formed 10 years ago in the name of Janlokpal, now they have forgotten it,” he said.
The Congress leader said: “I feel that today the plight of Delhi and that the Congress got weakened here is only because of the fact that we supported AAP for 40 days in 2013. Today, this is one of the biggest reasons for the plight of Delhi. And I believe that perhaps a mistake has been made again in Delhi by making the alliance, which needs to be rectified.”
The Congress party on Tuesday released the second list of 26 candidates for the Delhi assembly polls. Congress leader Farhan Suri will take on AAP’s Manish Sisodia in the Jangpur assembly constituency.
On December 12, Congress announced its first list of 21 candidates for the Delhi polls. The party fielded Sandeep Dikshit, son of former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, against AAP convener and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the New Delhi constituency.
The first list included candidates from diverse constituencies, such as Aruna Kumari (Narela), Mangesh Tyagi (Burari), and Shivank Singhal (Adarsh Nagar).