'Kejriwal hand in glove with BJP': Congress hits back at AAP for questioning Rahul Gandhi’s leadership

The Congress, AAP rivalry was triggered again on June 25 after the new party’s chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar made a provocative remark related to Rahul Gandhi. Reacting to it, Congress said on Sunday that AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal was hand in glove with the BJP. -- Reports ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi:The Congress on Sunday hit back at AAP founder and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and alleged that he was hand-in-gloves with the BJP and was trying to dent opposition unity.

The Congress, AAP rivalry was triggered again on June 25 after the new party’s chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar made a provocative remark related to Rahul Gandhi. Kakkar said that the Congress should refrain from naming Rahul as the leader of the party for a third time for the sake of opposition unity. For the Congress, which fought the 2014 and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls under the leadership of Rahul, the former MP will guide the party in the 2024 national elections as well.

“It is not the first time that Kejriwal is making such unsavoury remarks against our senior leaders. What the AAP chief spokesperson has said today is nothing new. It is simple that Kejriwal is hand in glove with the BJP and does not want to go to jail like his two colleagues. He is therefore ready to dent opposition unity. He attended the opposition meeting to dent it. If he wants the support of Congress, such statements should not have been made. This does not work,” former Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken told ETV Bharat.

“Kejriwal’s comments have been confusing. His comments are a calculated move to curry favour with the BJP,” he said. The relations between the Congress and the AAP have been tense for years as they are rivals in Delhi and Punjab but there has been some coming together between the two parties for the 2024 national elections against the BJP.

The Congress is keen to build a national anti-BJP platform of regional parties while the AAP is keen to get the support of the regional parties as well as the grand old party for the controversial central government’s ordinance which takes away the power of the Delhi government to appoint officers. Before the June 23 opposition meeting took place in Patna, Kejriwal had been trying to get a commitment from the Congress that it would oppose the controversial ordinance during the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

The Delhi chief minister had raised the ordinance issue at the Patna opposition meeting as well but was rebuked by Kharge. According to party insiders, Kharge told Kejriwal that the opposition meeting was not the proper forum to raise the ordinance issue and that the Congress would firm up its stand over the issue when the monsoon session would begin.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee too had reminded Kejriwal that the ordinance was not on the agenda of the opposition meeting. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and NC leader Omar Abdullah had then reminded the Delhi chief minister how he had supported the Centre over the removal of Article 370 from the erstwhile state in 2019 but was now worried over a central ordinance.

“An AAP leader had demanded before the opposition meeting that the Congress should leave Punjab and Delhi and then they would not contest in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. What is this? This kind of deal-making is not the Congress style,” former Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit told ETV Bharat. According to Maken, while the AAP founder was seeking support from the Congress over the ordinance, he was also attacking the grand old party leaders in Rajasthan.

“The kind of statements Kejriwal has been making against chief minister Ashok Gehlot and senior leader Sachin Pilot go against what he says in public,” said Maken, who has been in charge of the poll-bound state.