Is Congress confused or is this deliberate: AAP’s Sanjay Singh after Maken asks Kejriwal not be shown any sympathy

Referring to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s call to Kejriwal on the day he received the CBI summons to appear for questioning, Singh said Monday, “On one hand, Congress president Kharge ji extends support to Kejriwal over the phone, on the other hand Maken writes a statement. Is the Congress confused or doesn’t it talk amongst itself? Or is this deliberate?”

He also alleged that Maken seems to have “struck a deal” with the BJP: “What is Ajay Maken’s relationship with the BJP? Or what deal has he struck with the BJP, only he can tell.”

In Delhi, Congress has attacked AAP staunchly, especially over the past year, with its leaders meeting L-G to complain about government’s ad spend. Maken has been at the forefront of the attack on AAP, calling the party and its leaders corrupt and disloyal.

In his statement on Sunday, Maken had written, “I believe that individuals like Kejriwal and his associates who face serious corruption charges should not be shown any sympathy or support… it is important for all political leaders, including those from the Indian National Congress (INC), to recognise that the money gained through corrupt means by Kejriwal has been used against the Congress Party in several states, including Punjab, Goa, Gujarat, HP, Uttarakhand, and Delhi.”

AAP leaders also said Maken’s statements seem to be borne from his bitterness at his party being defeated by AAP in Delhi. “We aren’t taking it too seriously. There have been many instances in the past where AAP leaders have been unfairly targeted and there has not been even a murmur from Congress. It is for them to figure out which side they stand on,” said a senior party leader.

Senior Congress leaders, meanwhile, said attempts at forging a national front against the BJP for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections did not necessitate the party ceding space to or forgetting its humiliation at the hands of the AAP in the capital.

“There is no confusion or lack of communication in the Indian National Congress; it is the prerogative of Mallikarjun Kharge, as Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, to support opposition leaders irrespective of the party they belong to, to manage numbers in the upper House of Parliament. What does the AAP do in Punjab, for instance, where a Congress MP passes away while participating in the Bharat Jodo yatra led by Rahul Gandhi himself? It poaches one of our leaders and fields them,” the leader said.