Ahead of the next meeting of the opposition INDIA alliance, the underlying differences between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party became evident as the Congress' central leadership convened a meeting of its Delhi unit leaders today to discuss the party's preparations for the Lok Sabha elections in the national capital.
The remarks made by Delhi Congress leaders after the meeting, to the effect that the central leadership had asked them to prepare for the Lok Sabha polls in all seven parliamentary constituencies in the capital, immediately attracted a strong reaction from the AAP, which said that it would have to take a call on whether it should attend the Mumbai meeting in the wake of the comments.
The Congress got into damage control mode following the AAP retort and insisted that the meeting held today did not discuss the issue of alliance with the AAP. Its advice to the AAP was that it should not fall into the trap set by “BJP-leading media”.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge chaired a meeting of party leaders from Delhi to discuss preparations for the Lok Sabha elections. Former party chief Rahul Gandhi and AICC General Secretary K.C. Venugopal were also present in the discussion. As many as 40 leaders from the party's Delhi unit attended the meeting.
The meeting lasted for around four hours, and the discussions are significant in the backdrop of speculation whether the Congress will ally with the AAP in Delhi and other states. However, Delhi Congress leaders, as they emerged from the meeting, said the instruction from the central leadership was that they have to work to strengthen the organisation in all seven Lok Sabha seats in the capital.
Delhi Congress leader Alka Lamba said that the emphasis of the central leadership in the meeting was on strengthening the organisation in Delhi and its clear instruction to the state's leaders is that they should prepare for elections in all seven seats in the capital.
“It was discussed how the organisation in Delhi, which has weakened, must be strengthened. The issues that important in Delhi were discussed. We have been asked by the central leadership to prepare in all seven seats,” she said.
When asked about the possibility of the Congress entering into an alliance with the AAP, she said no discussion has taken place on that so far. She said the party leaders have been asked to prepare the organisation for elections in all the seven seats, and if any decision is taken on an alliance with the AAP, that is a different matter.
“We will keep our preparation up to the mark,” she emphasised.
Following the sharp retort from the AAP, AICC in-charge for Delhi Deepak Babaria sought to bring down the temperature, saying, “Alka Lamba is a spokesperson but she is not authorised to talk about such issues. I have said as an in-charge that there were no such discussions in the meeting today. I refute Alka Lamba's statement.”
Babaria also said that Lamba has clarified to him that she had not made the comments attributed to her by a section of the media.
Meanwhile, according to sources, Rahul spoke about his visits to different parts of Delhi and his interaction with the people. He is learnt to have said that there is a positive sentiment amongst the people for the Congress and it should capitalise on it.