NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader and spokesperson Pawan Khera has said that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal and his party would not have been part of the INDIA bloc if it was up to the Congress.
“If Congress was given a choice, I don’t think he (Arvind Kejriwal) would have been a part (of the INDIA alliance). I don’t think we on our own took him or dumped him. He dumped himself out,” Khera told ANI in an interview.
His comments came as both Congress and AAP are engaged in a fierce contest in Delhi assembly election. Taking a veiled dig at Kejriwal, Khera said, “If someone has megalomania, there’s no cure for it.”
He added that Congress, as the largest party, had made efforts to keep the alliance intact, but Kejriwal’s actions suggested otherwise. “The biggest party is responsible for keeping any alliance together. We tried to do that. However, if someone has megalomania, there’s no cure to that. The (Delhi assembly) elections will tell whether he is permanent,” he remarked.
On AAP’s rise in Punjab, Goa, and Delhi, Khera stressed the need for a long-term political strategy, focusing on defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “Some of us must play the short-term game and some of us must be obsessed with the long-term game, which is to get rid of them (BJP). They are our real enemies. They took our votes away. Defeating them is necessary,” he explained.
Asked if Congress would support AAP in case of a hung assembly in Delhi, Khera dismissed the possibility, stating that Delhi voters have historically made decisive choices. “This event will not occur since Delhi will vote decisively as it did in the past two elections. If it happens, we will have another round of elections. But I don’t think this will happen,” he said.
Comparing AAP with Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Khera claimed AAP lacked any ideological foundation. “There’s a huge difference between Shiv Sena and AAP, between BJP and AAP. Any party which has 10 per cent ideology is better than AAP, which has no ideology,” he said, accusing Kejriwal of treating ‘rajdharma’ as a mere business transaction.
“If I am in the government, I will provide you with water (facilities) and electricity. That’s my rajdharma. But he also does business in this. This is not ideological,” Khera said.