The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday strongly reacted to the Congress’s announcement of contesting on all the seven Parliamentary constituencies of Delhi alone. Speaking to news agency ANI, AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said that the party leadership will take a call on attending the Mumbai meeting of the opposition bloc INDIA, of which Congress and AAP are currently an ally. She also claimed that it was the Congress that approached AAP to join the bloc as the former has “no existence in Delhi”.
"The final decision to attend the next meeting of the INDIA alliance will be taken by the party's top leadership. It was the Congress which approached AAP for forming an alliance in Delhi since they do not have an existence in Delhi," Kakkar said.
The decision by Congress to go solo for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls on all the seven seats of Delhi came after the party leaders held a meeting to review its preparedness for the elections and discussed ways and means to strengthen the organisation.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi, who were present at the meeting, asked the party leaders to remain united and connected with people, reported PTI quoting sources as saying.
Following the meeting, Congress leader Alka Lamba said they have been given orders to contest on all seven (Lok Sabha) seats in Delhi.
However, after the AAP’s statement, Delhi Congress chief Anil Chaudhary clarified that Wednesday's meeting was not on alliance formation in Delhi and nothing was discussed about it.
"AAP can make assumptions but the decision on alliance will be taken by the AICC central leadership and it will be announced by them. We, as an opposition party here, will raise questions about corruption, " he told PTI.
AICC in-charge Delhi Congress Deepak Babaria said "Alka Lamba is a spokesperson but she is not an authorised spokesperson for talking on such important issues. I have said as an in-charge that there were no such discussions in the meeting today. I refute Alka Lamba's statement."