Former Delhi Cabinet minister Haroon Yusuf joined the ranks of senior officials denouncing AAP convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the developing dispute between the Congress party’s Delhi branch and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Yusuf compared Kejriwal’s use of the Lokpal Bill to obtain Congress backing for forming the first AAP administration in the capital to his alleged use of the Centre’s ordinance on services to further his political ambitions.
Yusuf spoke out against Kejriwal’s strategies a day after senior leader Ajay Maken criticised Kejriwal’s statements on opposition unity as a “calculated move to sabotage it to curry favour” with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in an alleged effort to avoid imprisonment on corruption charges. Yusuf previously held key portfolios in succeeding Congress governments, including Transport, Power, and Revenue.
Referring to the incident in 2013, Yusuf said, “What Arvind Kejriwal is doing today isn’t new. He did the same after the 2013 Delhi elections when I was the CLP leader. He asked us for support to form the government in Delhi and pass the Lokpal Bill. We supported him despite his ridicule of our leaders, all for the betterment of Delhi. Later, we all know the result—he abandoned that government within 49 days without passing the Lokpal Bill and failing to fulfill his other promises.”
The latest legislation, which gives the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi more authority in administrative matters and removes the elected government’s ability to supervise civil servant transfers and postings, has escalated the confrontation between the parties.
A top Delhi Congress official charged that Kejriwal tried to force the Congress into submission by using the law as a ruse to position himself as a national figure opposed to the BJP-led Centre’s undemocratic operations. The Congress leader said, “Not only is Kejriwal using the ordinance as a bogey to project himself as a national leader who is the only one at the receiving end of the BJP-led Centre’s undemocratic functioning, he is also trying to use it arm-twist the Congress into whatever stage of submission he possibly can.”
During the opposition meeting in Patna, Kejriwal reportedly encountered resistance in his attempts to mediate the conflict between the Congress and AAP. The AAP convenor was present at the opposition meeting in Patna on Friday, and reports said he repeatedly requested a meeting with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to resolve tensions between the two parties but was turned down. Forming an alliance would be “very difficult,” according to AAP, unless the Congress loudly condemns the ordinance.
The Congress and AAP have engaged in a war of words over statements made by party members. A senior AAP leader questioned Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s remarks at the Patna meeting regarding AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar’s statement on the voting of the ordinance in Parliament.
On the eve of the Opposition unity meeting, Kakkar had said in Delhi that the AAP had learnt through its sources that “the Congress would walk out of the Rajya Sabha or abstain from voting when the ordinance came up for voting in Parliament.”
The AAP leader said: “Kejriwalji replied that if statements of party functionaries were to be taken into account, the Congress would lose as senior members of the party, like Ajay Maken and Sandeep Dikshit, had made several anti-AAP statements and even demanded a CBI enquiry against senior AAP leaders.”
The acrimonious conversation between the parties is a reflection of direct encounters the Congress groups had with the AAP in Delhi and Punjab. At both the state and federal levels, senior Congress leaders have made it quite clear that they oppose backing the AAP.
When questioned about Kejriwal mentioning him at the Patna gathering, Maken said that he had merely voiced the wishes of the party’s members.
“What I said is not my personal opinion but based on the foundation of how our workers view the AAP,” Maken said.
In a statement on Sunday, Ajay Maken criticised the AAP’s approach, tweeting, “His ministers place prerequisites on our alliance, while their chief spokesperson publicly disparages our party and leaders on the day of the opposition party meeting. To brazenly criticize and then demand support, is this how alliances are sought, Mr. Kejriwal?”
In response to Maken’s tweet, Priyanka Kakkar highlighted remarks made by Congressmen, stressing their own opinions on the ordinance and their concerns with the AAP’s involvement in some states’ elections.
Kakkar said, “You have probably forgotten the statements of Congress leaders, let us remind you: On 31/05/2023, Sandeep Dixit ji said that he is standing with the ordinance of the Center against Delhi… On 23/05/2023, Ajay Maken ji talked about standing with the Delhi ordinance… You also objected to the Aam Aadmi Party contesting elections… Why has the Congress failed to defeat BJP in Gujarat for the last 30 years? Will Kejriwal ji be blamed for this too? The Aam Aadmi Party did not contest elections in Assam, Nagaland, Puducherry, Tripura, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Manipur, Arunachal; why did the Congress lose there?”
