Rahul Gandhi was once the biggest opponent of Aam Aadmi Party, know why he is talking about coming together now?

There was a time when Rahul Gandhi used to veto the alliance with Arvind Kejriwal in the party. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when the talk of alliance between Congress and Aam Aadmi Party first came up, he used to be the national president of Congress. At that time, talks about the alliance between the two parties progressed to a great extent, but according to Congress sources, when Arvind Kejriwal’s party started bargaining for the seats in Haryana and Punjab, Rahul clearly refused to form an alliance and the talks broke down.

There were two camps in Delhi as well. In 2019, Delhi Congress in-charge PC Chacko was in favour of an alliance but the Delhi Congress president at that time was Sheila Dixit who neither got along well with Chacko nor with Kejriwal. On the other hand, Sheila Dixit and Rahul Gandhi had very cordial relations and that is why the alliance could not be formed even after long talks.

Also read: AAP said ‘yes’ to Rahul Gandhi’s offer, on contesting elections together in Haryana, Sanjay Singh said- decision will be taken with Kejriwal’s consent

There was a tussle between Congress and AAP

When the discussion of forming India Alliance to fight BJP and NDA started, efforts were made to unite almost all the opposition parties. In the initial days itself, the central government implemented an ordinance regarding the services matters of Delhi. It was the month of May-June last year and despite repeated requests for time, Rahul Gandhi did not give time to Arvind Kejriwal and his party leaders to meet him. Then questions started being raised about the inclusion of Aam Aadmi Party in the India Alliance.

Eventually, when the central government introduced the Delhi Services Bill in the Parliament, the Congress also decided that it would vote against the bill and from then on the relations between the two parties started improving, but again in the month of August, when Alka Lamba, a former leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, gave a statement that the Congress is preparing to fight alone on all the seats in Delhi, then the Aam Aadmi Party again threatened to leave the alliance.

Punjab remained out of the alliance even in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections

Finally, just before the mayoral elections in Chandigarh, Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Arvind Kejriwal met and the result was that both the parties voted together there and were successful. At the same time, the way for alliance in different states was opened for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

After long discussions, there was consensus on seat sharing in Delhi, Gujarat and Haryana but both the parties decided to fight alone in Punjab. Despite the alliance, Aam Aadmi Party could not open its account in Delhi, Gujarat and Haryana and despite having a government in Punjab, it lagged behind Congress. Even Kejriwal’s release from jail on bail could not brighten the party’s fortunes. At the same time, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party got disillusioned with each other and it was decided to end the alliance in the state level elections.

Meaning of Rahul’s proposal before Haryana elections

Rahul Gandhi is now the leader of the opposition and it is his responsibility to take the opposition parties along not only inside the house but also outside. This is not all, in Haryana, although the Aam Aadmi Party could not win the only seat of Kurukshetra which it got as part of the alliance, but there too it lost by a very small margin. Congress benefited and won 5 out of 9 seats.

Also read: Haryana Elections: What is Rahul Gandhi’s strategy behind forming an alliance with AAP?

At a time when there is talk of Arvind Kejriwal coming out of jail just before the Haryana assembly elections, Congress sees Kejriwal as a better option to tackle the anti-incumbency wave in Haryana. The reason is that other alliances also want to bring Aam Aadmi Party with them and Congress believes that if this happens, the opposition votes may get scattered and the winning game may change.

Kejriwal has a good influence on the youth, women and some sections of urban voters and Haryana is not only Kejriwal’s native state but Delhi, where Kejriwal is the Chief Minister, borders Haryana on three sides. It is not just about Haryana, but Delhi Assembly elections are also due early next year and if this experiment is successful, then Rahul must be thinking of a strategy to stop BJP by forming an alliance in Delhi as well.