AAP, Congress likely to join hands in Delhi ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls

NEW DELHI: As political parties are gearing up for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, another Congress-triggered alliance is taking its shape to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Following the 'Mahagathbandhan' in Bihar assembly elections of 2015 and the recent Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance in Karnataka, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress are in talks of a coalition in Delhi.

Reports suggest that informal talks between the grand old party and AAP initiated on May 24, with Jairam Ramesh and Ajay Maken representing the former.

Reportedly, the AAP approached the Congress for the alliance, with an offer of a 5:2 ratio for seat sharing in Delhi - five seats for the AAP and two for the Congress.

The Congress party, however, demanded three out of the seven seats, which are - New Delhi for Sharmishtha Mukherjee, Chandni Chowk for Ajay Maken and North West Delhi for Rajkumar Chauhan. 

The speculations about the rumoured alliance got a further boost after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on Thursday praised former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Twitter. 

Launching an attack on PM Modi, the AAP leader had said that people are missing an educated PM like Manmohan Singh. "People missing an educated PM like Dr Manmohan Singh," Kejriwal had tweeted.

It is worthy to note that Kejriwal had earlier been a strong critic of Manmohan Singh going as far as to say in 2013 that, "Manmohan failed to check corruption within Congress and his own government". 

BJP's ever-expanding wings in the country have, however, now made once bitter foes, the best of friends.

(With inputs from ANI)