Odd one out in Patna Oppn bonhomie, AAP claims Arvind Kejriwal reached out to Rahul Gandhi, was snubbed

A senior AAP leader said that the Delhi Chief Minister made requests for a meeting several times to Rahul during Friday’s talks in Patna, including “with folded hands”. He added that a key leader of another party also suggested that Rahul and Kejriwal sit together during the post-meeting lunch to iron out their differences, but that this too did not materialise.

Soon after the Patna meeting ended, the AAP had said that the Congress’s hesitation to denounce the ordinance publicly would make it “very difficult for the AAP to be part of any alliance that includes the Congress”.

As per an AAP source, Rahul’s stand was that issues of granting a meeting to any Opposition leader or taking a stand on the ordinance would be decided by the Congress internally. “Rahul said that the AAP’s eagerness for a meeting showed it was up to some mischief,” claimed the source.

The Indian Express reported that the Congress’s stand at the Patna meeting was that while the party stood against any move that was “unconstitutional”, it could not give in to AAP pressure demanding a public statement from the Congress that it would vote against the ordinance in Parliament.

The AAP leader who spoke to The Indian Express also questioned Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s statement at the Patna meeting regarding remarks made by AAP national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar. 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.”

He added: “Kejriwalji emphasised the importance of forgetting the past and moving forward, and added that all differences could be addressed over an hour-long meeting. He requested a meeting with folded hands.”

Given the Congress’s position, the AAP leader said, the AAP has not decided whether it will attend the next Opposition meeting planned in Shimla in mid-July.

“The Congress said all parties invited to Patna will also be invited to Shimla. We will see what happens… We are still trying to gather our thoughts after Friday’s meeting. If they are not agreeing to drink a cup of tea and have a 30-minute discussion, then the idea that we will all come under one umbrella is farfetched,” the leader added.

A senior Delhi Congress leader said that the AAP was in the habit of asking the Congress’s national leadership to rein in specific individuals at the state level.

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,” he said.

“The Congress’s units in both Delhi and Punjab have seen the AAP at closer quarters and are aware of its tactics and the shrewdness with which it operates, solely on the basis of big, but hollow, statements,” the senior Congress leader said.