NEW DELHI: The
AAP
versus Congress battle in Delhi is getting bigger and bitter with the allies-turned-rivals engaged in no-holds-barred attack against each other. Arvind Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi, who have shared stage several times in the last one year as allies under the opposition’s INDIA banner, have been targeting each other like never before.
Rahul Gandhi has been relentless in his attacks on Kejriwal. The former Congress president has accused the AAP chief of “speaking lies like PM Narendra Modi” and claimed that “probably Kejriwal is even more ‘chalaak (cunning)’ than Modi.” Rahul also attacked Kejriwal for allowing the “biggest liquor scam” to happen under his watch and has taken jibes at AAP chief’s ‘sheesh mahal wali rajneeti’.
Kejriwal has also returned fire reminding Rahul Gandhi about the involvement of Gandhi family in the National Herald corruption case and has alleged Congress complicity with the BJP in ensuring clean chit to Robert Vadra in alleged land grab cases. The AAP chief has blamed the Congress of fighting Delhi elections to defeat his party and in the process help the BJP.
“This time, there is ‘ilu ilu’ between the BJP and Congress, and they are fighting these elections together. Voting for Congress means voting for BJP. Do not press the wrong button, otherwise, life will be miserable,” Kejriwal said at a rally with Samjawadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav by his side.The Congress has reacted sharply to allegations of “tango with the BJP” and has said that by similar yardsticks it could be claimed that AAP had joined hands with BJP in states where it contested against the grand-old-party. “Arvind Kejriwal is rattled to see his impending defeat (in the elections). We can also ask him that when he went to Goa, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, did he make a compromise with the BJP? Such statements don’t suit Kejriwal,” Congress leader Supriya Shrinate said countering AAP chief’s charge.
When Kejriwal tried to change the discourse of Delhi campaign by accusing Haryana government of poisoning the city’s water – Rahul led the charge to shred the AAP chief and said, “Kejriwal ji, now 2025 has come. When will you take a dip in the Yamuna? Delhi is waiting!
“Ever since coming to power in Delhi, Kejriwal has been making empty promises – ‘we will clean Yamuna, I will take a dip or else don’t vote’, and many more long speeches. And today again he is sitting with a bottle of Yamuna water making allegations and counter-allegations,” Rahul said.
“This is not just an insult to Yamuna ji, it is a mockery of the lives of the people of Delhi that has been going on for years. This horrific condition of Yamuna is the result of the confluence of negligence and corruption of the Modi and Kejriwal governments,” the Congress leader added.
It will be interesting to see the impact of this bitter slugfest between the AAP and the Congress on the future dynamics of the INDIA bloc. Akhilesh Yadav has openly backed Kejriwal in this fight and held a road show with the AAP chief. His appeal to voters not to waste their votes had a subtle message for the Congress. Mamata Banerjee and Sharad Pawar have also spoken in support of Kejriwal. However, they have not joined the campaign on ground. Uddhav Thackeray has announced to stay neutral and stay away from campaigning in Delhi elections. While the dynamics of INDIA bloc differs from state to state, there is perhaps one common thread that defines its politics – balancing power aspirations between the Congress and the regional parties.
Kejriwal is not the first INDIA bloc leader with which the Congress has had bitter tussle. We have seen a similar bickering play out in West Bengal where Congress and the Left parties refused to join hands with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress. Mamata then levelled similar allegations against the Congress of working to help the BJP in Bengal.
Interestingly however, the intensity of Congress’s attacks against Kejriwal is much more than what we saw in Bengal against Mamata. AAP is the only national party in the opposition alliance other than the Congress and has spread its wings in several states. This raises the obvious question – Does Congress see Kejriwal as a bigger threat to the grand-old-party than other regional leaders including Mamata or is the Congress trying to send out a message to other allies in the opposition bloc?
While there may be no clear answer to this – the aggression in Rahul’s attacks on Kejriwal perhaps points to the party’s long-term plans as the Congress is unlikely to make big gains in these elections riding on this offensive.
