The beleaguered Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) virtually had the Congress' door shut on it after Congress leader Ajay Maken made a rather severe comment on Twitter about the party's decision not to support AAP in forming the Delhi government.
On Tuesday, Maken, who heads the Congress' communication wing, tweeted.
Even as vested AAP interests create confusion,its reiterated,@INCIndia will NOT be supporting them in Delhi for their diabolical power play.
— Ajay Maken (@ajaymaken) June 10, 2014
Congress had lent support to AAP after the Delhi assembly elections last December helping it to form the state government, but the relations between the two parties have deteriorated since then.
The decision by the Congress to refrain from reaching out to AAP will mean fresh elections in the capital, according to a Times of India report. The report stated that Congress had told its MLAs that supporting AAP would weaken the national party's already dim prospects in Delhi, where it had ruled for 15 years under former Chief Minister Sheila Dixit. The Congress' stance on the issue seems to be extremely stern, with party leadership reported to have told MLAs looking to support AAP to part ways.
The TOI report comes a day after it was reported in The Indian Express that a senior AAP leader had urged Congress MLAs to push the party leadership into supporting an AAP-led government.
The decision by the Congress to shun AAP comes even at the stake of letting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) come to power in the state.
The capital has been headless ever since the Arvind Kejriwal-led government fell in February this year, barely 49 days after he was elected to power. Kejriwal had dramatically resigned following the failure of the passage of the Jan Lokpal Bill, his pet cause.
The TOI report also cited that the BJP was also against any form of partnership with the young party.
"Neither Congress nor AAP MLAs enjoy any credibility. Several AAP MLAs are in the middle of controversy and it is best to let the party deal with them rather than us," a senior BJP leader was quoted as saying.
