Arvind Kejriwal knocks on Congress’s door again, but thaw in rivalry unlikely

Sought time this morning to meet Cong President Sh Kharge ji and Sh Rahul Gandhi ji to seek Cong support in Parl against undemocratic n unconstitutional ordinance passed by BJP govt and also to discuss general assault on federal structure and prevailing political situation

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 26, 2023

Given the bad blood between the two parties, the reason behind the curiosity is not hard to fathom. On the other hand, Kejriwal’s attempt to get the Congress’s backing in the Rajya Sabha to stall a Bill that will have to be introduced to replace the ordinance does not mark a clean break but is a continuation of the AAP’s approach to the Congress question.

“It is not about individual leaders or parties. When bigger things concerning the existence of Indian democracy are at stake, political parties should sink their differences and get together, for the sake of national interest,” AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak told The Indian Express on Wednesday.

Behind the rhetoric on the nation and its interests appears to be good old political pragmatism.The AAP knows that without the support of the Congress, which has 31 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, its plan to resist the Bill is a non-starter. The AAP also feels that if the Congress refuses the meeting, the larger Opposition block would view it as “arrogance” on the part of the grand old party.

The AAP has displayed similar flexibility, which its critics call opportunism, in the past as well. In December 2013, as the AAP fell short of the majority mark of 36 MLAs in the Delhi Assembly in its debut polls — the party bagged 28 seats — it took the Congress’s support to deny the BJP, which had won 32 seats, a shot at power. This, even though the campaign of the AAP, an offshoot of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement, was primarily against the “misgovernance” by the Congress and alleged corruption in its ranks. The AAP-Congress arrangement, however, lasted only 49 days as Kejriwal quit accusing the Congress and the BJP of stonewalling his efforts to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill.

Subsequently, a high degree of animosity marked the relations between the AAP and the Congress, which failed to get even one MLA elected to the Delhi Assembly in 2015 and 2020. The run-up to the 2019 general elections also saw attempts by Kejriwal to tie up with the Congress, holding up the same “national interest” card as is being done now. But with the Congress refusing to extend any seat-sharing agreement with the AAP beyond Delhi — in states such as Haryana, Punjab, and Goa — the talks broke down. “I must regretfully submit that if Modi-Shah returns to power only one person will be responsible and that is Rahul Gandhi,” Kejriwal said at the time.

Rahul had then tweeted, “An alliance between the Congress & AAP in Delhi would mean the rout of the BJP. The Congress is willing to give up 4 Delhi seats to the AAP to ensure this. But, Mr Kejriwal has done yet another U-turn! Our doors are still open, but the clock is running out.”

Eventually, no arrangement could be worked out and the BJP swept all seven parliamentary seats in the national capital.

On top of that, the Congress lost Punjab to the AAP last year, following which Kejriwal also pushed hard to expand his party in Goa and Gujarat, albeit with limited success. But with another general election on the horizon, any meeting between the AAP and the Congress leadership will trigger speculation of a possible rapprochement on the cards.

For the Congress leadership, it is also an opportunity to read the mind of the AAP, which governs Delhi and Punjab, at a time when efforts are being made to give shape to a joint Opposition front to challenge the BJP in the 2024 general elections.

But a major thorn in the side of the proponents of AAP-Congress unity is the Delhi unit of the Congress itself. From former Union Minister and ex-Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken to Alka Lamba, who quit the AAP in September 2019 to rejoin the Congress, many have voiced strong reservations against having any truck with the AAP. Recently, the AAP was not on the list of invitees to the swearing-in ceremony of the Congress government in Karnataka, which was seen as a snub to Kejriwal.

The AAP now plans to contest the Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan, states where the Congress continues to have a robust presence. It remains to be seen if the AAP recalibrates its electoral plans in the event of the Congress deciding to support it in the Rajya Sabha.

The official word, though, is that it will have no bearing on its Vidhan Sabha plans. “This outreach over the ordinance is issue-based. We are very clear that we will fight the Assembly polls alone as that helps a party like us to expand our organisation even if we may not necessarily perform very well. There is nothing wrong with doing that. But it would be too early to comment on whether that will be our approach in the Lok Sabha polls as well,” said Pathak.