New Delhi, April 12 (PTI): The Aam Aadmi Party is capable of defeating both the BJP and the Congress in the city and an alliance is possible with the grand old party only when it will be done on 33 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Goa, said AAP leader Gopal Rai on Friday.
Earlier in the day, the Congress announced that it will fight the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi alone, but maintained that it is still willing to have an alliance with the AAP provided that the tie-up is restricted only to the national capital.
The AAP, in turn, wanted such an alliance to extend to Haryana and Punjab as well.
“We want alliance on all 33 seats with the Congress and not three seats in Delhi. We are capable of defeating the BJP and the Congress on our own in Delhi. If an alliance has to be there, it has to be on 33 seats (in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Goa and UT Chandigarh),” Rai said.
AAP’s Rajya Sabha leader Sanjay Singh, who was holding alliance talks with the Congress, said, “Our sincerity to stop the BJP in Haryana is reflected by the fact that we became a junior partner to a four-month-old party (JJP) and agreed to contest only less than half of the seats in the state.”
Singh said the AAP was eager for an alliance with the Congress in Haryana so that the BJP could be defeated on all the 10 seats.
“That’s why we were prepared to give Congress three seats in Delhi. But they refused an alliance,” he said.
Singh exuded confidence that the AAP would win all the seven seats on its own in Delhi.
However, sources said the AAP in a last-ditch attempt may offer a 5:2 seat sharing formula to the Congress in Delhi.
Earlier, the AAP was ready to give three seats to the Congress in Delhi but now it might consider giving it just two seats, the sources added.
Congress’ in-charge for Delhi P C Chacko said the Congress will go alone in Delhi since the AAP has taken an “impractical stand”.
He, however, said, “We are still ready (for alliance) if the AAP is willing to have an alliance in Delhi alone. We want to fight the BJP together.
