Shakeel Ahmad, Ajay Maken made scapegoats for party’s decision
After extending “unconditional” support to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to form a government in Delhi, the Congress on Tuesday created a flutter by stating that the party was divided over the decision. Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi admitted that there are differences within the party over support to the AAP.
“There is an opinion in the party that the decision to support the AAP was not correct. It is clear that the mandate was not for the Congress. The party could have played the role of a constructive Opposition,” Dwivedi said.
On a question whether the party will review its decision to support an AAP government in the wake of protests by a section of Congress workers, Dwivedi said that since proposal had already been made to the AAP there was no question of a U-turn. “The Congress does not have an extremist approach, so there is no question of reviewing out decision,” Dwivedi said.
A section within the Congress thinks that supporting the AAP is a bad decision as its leader Arvind Kejriwal has been threatening to initiate a probe against Congress leaders.
Incidentally, a couple of hours before protest started at the Delhi Congress headquarters on Monday, Sheila Dikshit had met all the eight party MlAs, former Cabinet colleagues and some of the ex-MlAs to deliberate on the issue.
Dwivedi regretted the fact that despite the Sheila Dikshit Government doing a tremendous work in the last 15 years, voters did not give her the mandate. Sources said that Dikshit, who received a humiliating defeat at the hands of Kejriwal, and former DPCC president JP Agarwal, in a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, had vehemently opposed the decision to extend support to the AAP.
Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel said in Ahmedabad, “In an organisation, there are different voices but right now our support is for Aam AadmiParty... We will see what happens later.”
With differences cropping up in the party over the decision, attempts started to insulate the high command from the controversial move. A senior Congress leader tried to put the blame on party general secretary in-charge for Delhi Shakeel Ahmad and former Union Minister Ajay Maken for the decision.
“The decision was left on Shakeel Ahmad, but now the high command is closely monitoring,” he said.In an apparent move to keep Dikshit in good humour, he said the high command was in regular touch with the former Delhi CM.
Dikshit on Monday had told the party high command that if the MlAs have decided to support the AAP then there was nothing to be discussed.However, her major concern remains that more than running a government in Delhi, the AAP regime would try to create problems for the party, well-placed sources in the AICC told The Pioneer.
Sources said that though Dikshit has blamed former DPCC chief JP Agarwal for the rout of the Congress in Delhi, the duo was on the same page on the issue of supporting AAP.
In its reaction, the BJP hit out at both the AAP and the Congress alleging that they were collaborating to form a government in a “self-serving” exercise with “dishonourable” motive. leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said, “Both the Congress and the AAP have entered into this political adjustment with a self-serving motive.
“Each wants to outfox the other. The Congress wants the AAP to make a few mistakes so that it can recover its constituency and then force a poll. It said this was happening as the Congress wants a breather and fears another electoral humiliation while the AAP was keen to prevent its MlAs from getting scattered,” Jaitely said.