‘We welcome it…’: AAP on possible alliance with Congress in poll-bound Haryana

Ex-Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is reportedly seeking opinion from party leaders on a possible alliance with the AAP for the assembly election in Haryana.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader Sanjay Singh on Tuesday welcomed reports that Rahul Gandhi was seeking opinion from leaders of the Congress regarding a possible alliance between the parties in poll-bound Haryana.

AAP MP Sanjay Singh (File Photo) (PTI)

Singh, however, added that a final decision will be taken only after consulting Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP supremo who is in jail in connection with the alleged scam in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.

“We welcome it…our priority is to defeat the BJP. Our Haryana in-charge Sandeep Pathak and (state unit president) Sushil Gupta will take a final decision and inform Arvind Kejriwal about it. A decision will be taken accordingly,” ANI quoted the Rajya Sabha member as saying.

According to reports, ex-Congress chief Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, brought up the topic during a meeting of the grand old party's Central Election Committee (CEC) on Monday.

With the state's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government facing anti-incumbency having been in power here since 2014, the idea is to prevent the division of anti-BJP votes, reports added.

Nationally, the AAP and Congress are among 28 constituents of the opposition INDIA bloc. The two had tied up in Chandigarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Goa, and Haryana for the Lok Sabha polls.

However, there remains a considerable animosity as the AAP was borne out of the 2011 anti-corruption movement against the then Congress-led central government. It has also pushed the latter out of power in Delhi and Punjab.

The parties contested the Lok Sabha elections separately in Punjab.

Voting to elect members of the 90-seat Haryana assembly will be held on October 5. The counting is on October 8.

Assembly polls in Delhi, meanwhile, will be held early next year.