Union minister Vijay Goel on Sunday staged a protest at the Jantar Mantar to “caution” people against the “falsehood” being spread by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress.
Goel said that the two parties, in the past, were involved in trading corruption barbs at each other, but are now desperate to join hands to win the Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.
South Delhi member of Parliament (MP) Ramesh Bidhuri, West Delhi MP Pravesh Varma, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators Om Prakash Sharma, Jagdish Pradhan and Manjinder Singh Sirsa also took part in the protest.
The AAP and the Congress in Delhi have been in talks of a possible seat-sharing arrangement, but the deal is yet to be finalised. The final call on the alliance, however, will be taken by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in the coming days.
“The AAP and the Congress are trying to forge an unholy alliance in their lust for power. It is fate that the Delhi Congress president is now Sheila Dikshit, who was promised to be sent to jail on corruption charges by Arvind Kejriwal. These two parties think that the Delhi public is ignorant, as if the public does not understand their tactics,” Goel said during the protest.
The BJP leader also said that former Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) chief Ajay Maken, who accused half the ministers and MLAs of the AAP government of corruption and opposed an alliance with the AAP, has also started changing his views.
Two billboards were put up at the protest site — one reflecting the accusations of the Congress against the AAP and the other highlighting the allegations of the AAP against the Congress.
Delhi Congress spokesperson Jitender Kochar said that they have never shown any interest in an alliance with the AAP.
“The AAP leaders are announcing an alliance and dissolving it too. We have stuck to our stand that we do not want any seat-sharing arrangement with them. The AAP and the BJP is trying to gain mileage from this,” Kochar said.
Saurabh Bharadwaj, AAP’s national spokesperson, said, “Aam Aadmi Party feels blessed that Vijay Goel and Sheila Dikshit are back in Delhi politics. They make it an interesting and entertaining contest for Delhiites to chose among Dikshit, Vijay Goel and Arvind Kejriwal. They themselves know who represents the voice of Delhi. Vijay Goel has forgotten that it’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi who snatched the ACB from Kejriwal government. Goel declares MCD is ‘chor’ but is too helpless despite being a central minister. This explains all.”
