NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday campaigned for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the upcoming Delhi elections, cautioning the national capital electors to “not waste a single vote”.
“I appeal to people to come together to defeat the BJP. Your vote should not be wasted, to defeat the BJP, every vote should go to AAP,” Akhilesh Yadav said while holding a road show in Kirari along with Arvind Kejriwal.
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Akhilesh’s strong pitch for AAP had a subtle message for the Congress party, which despite being the biggest party in the opposition INDIA bloc, found no backing from major allies in the anti-BJP alliance.
The Samajwadi Party chief’s remark was an apparent endeavour to prevent a split in votes between the AAP and the Congress party, which is fighting Delhi polls to snap the streak of zero it has been scoring for the last two polls.
As Akhilesh and other INDIA bloc partners chose to bat overtly for AAP in the national capital polls, the move reflected a strategy to convey to Congress that it needed to squeeze in the regional allies in places where it had the leverage.
Changing dynamics in the opposition INDIA bloc descended a notch lower as Congress did not accommodate Akhilesh Yadav in Madhya Pradesh and AAP in the Haryana assembly elections in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
The Congress party, however, has dismissed any rift in the INDIA bloc, saying Akhilesh chose to support AAP over Congress in Delhi because “it is stronger”.
“We respect the sentiments of all INDIA alliance parties. But they should also understand that Congress is sacrificing so many things for the INDIA alliance,” Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said a few weeks ago.
With Congress struggling to regain its footing in Delhi, where it has been out of power since 2013, the growing tensions within the INDIA bloc are casting doubts on its ability to present a united front.
AAP, buoyed by its stronghold in the capital, has accused the Congress of aiding the BJP by targeting its party chief, Arvind Kejriwal.
Earlier today, Kejriwal upped the ante against Congress and accused the party of steering clear of criticising BJP.
In a video message to Congress supporters, the former Delhi chief minister reiterated that voting for Congress would essentially benefit BJP in the polls.
Unlike last year’s Lok Sabha polls when AAP-Congress fought in alliance, Rahul Gandhi has personally taken charge to attack Kejriwal on several fronts.
The Congress leader on Thursday took a swipe at Kejriwal over his promises to end corruption and clean the Yamuna during his tenure and challenged him to drink Yamuna water in Delhi’s Badli region.
Rahul, addressing a rally in Badli ahead of Delhi polls said, “The person who promised to end corruption, bathe in the Yamuna, and drink its water is now at the centre of the biggest liquor scam. The entire country knows about it. Five years ago, Arvind Kejriwal vowed to bathe in and drink Yamuna’s water. I challenge him to drink the water available here in Badli.”
Last month, AAP said it would mobilise the constituents of INDIA bloc to get Congress evicted from the grouping if the main opposition party did not take action against its general secretary Ajay Maken, who, the party claimed, had dubbed Arvind Kejriwal anti-national.
Raising the pitch against AAP, Maken also claimed that the party’s alliance with Kejriwal in the past was a mistake which needed to be rectified.
“I feel the Congress got weakened here (in Delhi) only because of the fact that we supported AAP for 40 days in 2013 (during the first Kejriwal government). Today, this is also one of the biggest reasons for the plight of Delhi. And, I believe that perhaps a mistake has been made again in Delhi by making the alliance (in the last Lok Sabha election), which now needs to be rectified,” Maken said at an event where Delhi Congress released a 12-point White Paper targeting AAP and BJP.
