2 min readNew DelhiDec 11, 2013 02:00 AM IST
First published on: Dec 11, 2013 at 02:00 AM IST
The Congress on Tuesday said it was ready to offer “unconditional,outside support” to an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi to end the uncertainty over a hung verdict. But AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal declined the offer,saying there was no question of backing or taking support from the BJP or Congress.
The Congress made the offer two days after party vice-president Rahul Gandhi admitted that “the AAP involved a lot of people who the traditional political parties did not involve” and “we are going to learn from that and do a better job… and involve people in ways you cannot even imagine now”.
On Tuesday,Shakeel Ahmed,AICC general secretary in charge of Delhi,met the eight Congress MLAs who managed to survive the party decimation — the Congress strength in the last House was 43.
“A number of senior leaders in Delhi believe that we should give unconditional support to AAP to form a government in Delhi. They believe we should extend outside support to it. We would not want to burden the people with another election,” he said.
The final decision,he said,would be taken by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. “She’s not in Delhi right now. But these concerns will be taken up with her. The ultimate decision will be taken by her,” he said.
Congress leader and Seelampur MLA Mateen Ahmed said the eight elected legislators had decided to provide outside support to the AAP.
“Since the people of Delhi have given them 28 of 70 seats,they should take up the responsibility of forming a government in the state,we will support them from outside,” he said.
When his comments were sought,Kejriwal said: “There is no question of tying up with either the BJP or Congress.” He said since the BJP was the single largest party,they should attempt to form a government with support from the Congress.
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