In a growing confrontation between the Delhi unit of the Congress party and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), former Delhi Cabinet minister Haroon Yusuf joined the ranks of senior leaders criticising AAP convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Yusuf accused Kejriwal of exploiting the Centre's ordinance on Services to gain political advantage, drawing parallels to his previous use of the Lokpal Bill to secure Congress support for forming the inaugural AAP government in the capital. Yusuf, who previously held key portfolios in successive Congress governments, including Transport, Power, and Revenue, spoke out against Kejriwal's tactics a day after senior leader Ajay Maken had termed Kejriwal’s statements on opposition unity a “calculated move to sabotage it to curry favour” with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in an alleged bid to evade imprisonment on corruption charges. Referring to the incident in 2013, Yusuf said, "What Arvind Kejriwal is doing today isn't new. He did the same after the 2013 Delhi elections when I was the CLP leader. He asked us for support to form the government in Delhi and pass the Lokpal Bill. We supported him despite his ridicule of our leaders, all for the betterment of Delhi. Later, we all know the result—he abandoned that government within 49 days without passing the Lokpal Bill and failing to fulfill his other promises." The recent ordinance, which places the transfer and posting of civil servants beyond the elected government's control and empowers the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi in administrative matters, has intensified the conflict between the parties. Accusing Kejriwal of using the ordinance as a ploy to portray himself as a national leader at odds with the undemocratic functioning of the BJP-led Centre, a senior Delhi Congress leader alleged that Kejriwal sought to coerce the Congress into submission. The Congress leader said, "Not only is Kejriwal using the ordinance as a bogey to project himself as a national leader who is the only one at the receiving end of the BJP-led Centre's undemocratic functioning, he is also trying to use it arm-twist the Congress into whatever stage of submission he possibly can." Kejriwal's attempts to bridge the gap between the Congress and AAP during the opposition meet in Patna reportedly met with resistance. The AAP convenor had been part of the opposition meet in Patna Friday where he is said to have asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for a one-on-one meeting to iron out differences between the two parties several times but was allegedly rebuffed, according to sources. AAP stated that unless the Congress publicly denounces the ordinance, forming an alliance would be "very difficult." The Congress and AAP have engaged in a war of words over statements made by party members. A senior AAP leader questioned Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's remarks at the Patna meeting regarding AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar's statement on the voting of the ordinance in Parliament. On the eve of the Opposition unity meeting, Kakkar had said in Delhi that the AAP had learnt through its sources that “the Congress would walk out of the Rajya Sabha or abstain from voting when the ordinance came up for voting in Parliament.” The AAP leader said: “Kejriwalji replied that if statements of party functionaries were to be taken into account, the Congress would lose as senior members of the party, like Ajay Maken and Sandeep Dikshit, had made several anti-AAP statements and even demanded a CBI enquiry against senior AAP leaders.” The tense exchange between the parties reflects the Congress units' firsthand experiences with the AAP in Delhi and Punjab. Senior Congress leaders have made their opposition to supporting the AAP abundantly clear, both at the state and national levels. Asked about Kejriwal’s reference to him at the Patna meeting, Maken said he had only expressed the will of party workers. "What I said is not my personal opinion but based on the foundation of how our workers view the AAP,” Maken said. In a statement on Sunday, Ajay Maken criticised the AAP's approach, tweeting, "His ministers place prerequisites on our alliance, while their chief spokesperson publicly disparages our party and leaders on the day of the opposition party meeting. To brazenly criticize and then demand support, is this how alliances are sought, Mr. Kejriwal?" Responding to Maken's tweet, Priyanka Kakkar reminded him of statements made by Congress leaders, highlighting their own positions regarding the ordinance and their objections to the AAP's electoral participation in certain states. Kakkar said, “You have probably forgotten the statements of Congress leaders, let us remind you: On 31/05/2023, Sandeep Dixit ji said that he is standing with the ordinance of the Center against Delhi… On 23/05/2023, Ajay Maken ji talked about standing with the Delhi ordinance… You also objected to the Aam Aadmi Party contesting elections… Why has the Congress failed to defeat BJP in Gujarat for the last 30 years? Will Kejriwal ji be blamed for this too? The Aam Aadmi Party did not contest elections in Assam, Nagaland, Puducherry, Tripura, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Manipur, Arunachal; why did the Congress lose there?”
