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Maken, a longtime critic of AAP, said that its national convener, Arvind Kejriwal, was a leader who lacked direction and ideology and that the party being in power had proven detrimental to Delhi and its people
Maken said that the BJP has failed to act as an effective opposition in Delhi. File pic/PTI
ajay makenCongress leader Ajay Maken on Thursday said that allying with the Aam Aadmi Party for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was a mistake. In an interaction with CNN-News18 ahead of the Delhi assembly elections scheduled for February 5, Maken, a longtime critic of AAP, said that its national convener, Arvind Kejriwal, was a leader who lacked direction and ideology and that the party being in power had proven detrimental to Delhi and its people.
“It was a mistake on part of the Congress to form an alliance with AAP. It has proven detrimental to the people of Delhi. Arvind Kejriwal is not a leader who can be trusted,” the Congress MP told CNN-News18.
The Congress has long believed that AAP has grown in states at its expense in states where it has traditionally been in a direct battle with the Bharatiya Janata Party. However, the meteoric rise of the BJP after the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 gradually saw efforts to unite opposition parties to fight a common enemy.
“Kejriwal has no ideology; he is in fact more aligned to the ideology of BJP and RSS,” Maken told CNN-News18.
The formation of the INDIA bloc of opposition parties also saw the inclusion of AAP under the banner. The Congress and AAP also contested the elections in an alliance in Delhi but drew a blank on all 7 seats.
“AAP leaders started to say after the Lok Sabha polls that there will be no alliance for the assembly. They started saying it first, so they broke the alliance,” Maken said.
The Congress and AAP also tied up after the 2013 Delhi assembly elections delivered a hung verdict. Although the government lasted only 40 days, the Congress’s support enabled Kejriwal to form a government. Maken has previously attributed this decision by the Congress as the reason behind its own decline in the capital.
AAP has been in power in the national capital for two straight terms and is eying a third term in the coming elections.
Maken said that the BJP has failed to act as an effective opposition in Delhi.
“I was the first complainant in both Sheeshmahal and liquor scam cases,” he said. “Kejriwal came to power to curb corruption. He built a whopping Sheeshmahal for himself…Kejriwal is not replying to our allegations;: he is sitting on 14 CAG reports of wrongdoing…When we point out his corruption, he accuses us of reading BJP’s script but he never answers our allegations.”
The Congress was initially reluctant to attack AAP and Kejriwal given their partnership as part of the INDIA bloc. However, the bonhomie soon gave way to animosity as AAP joined ranks with the Trinamool Congress and other opposition parties to pitch for a non-Congress leader at the helm of the alliance.
“The Congres has to fight effectively as we gave good governance in Delhi; our workers ask why are we sitting silently and not reclaiming our space…We have put up strong candidates,” said Maken. “AAP is irrelevant outside Delhi and Punjab, so there will be no impact on the INDIA grouping.”
