{Arun Jaitley**} What is the exact nature of the Congress-AAP relationship? Many have suggested that AAP is the B -Team of the Congress. The truth is otherwise. For the present, the Congress has agreed to the humiliation of working as the B-Team of the AAP. The relationship between the two merits some other comments.
The BJP as the largest single party in Delhi got only 32 seats. It was clear that till it achieves a stable support of 36 MLAs it will not try and form the government. The BJP in an upfront manner informed the Lt. Governor of this statistical reality. The party has reconciled to sitting in opposition or a fresh election.
The AAP got only 28 seats. They were short of the magic figure needed to form a government. There obviously was a temptation to make their presence felt nationally by forming a government in Delhi. They went back on their commitment not to take the Congress support through a farcical referendum.
The Congress Party was a clear loser in the election. It got only eight seats. Most of its leaders lost the election. The Congress cannot afford an early re-election. It needs breathing time to recover. If no government had been formed in Delhi, a re-election could have been held along with Lok Sabha polls. In that event, the ‘Modi factor’ would also have influenced the outcome of the polls. The election would have been polarized between the BJP and the AAP with the Congress getting squeezed out even more.
It is here that a convergence of two contradictory interests took place. The AAP needs the support of the 8 MLAs of the Congress to form a Government. Government formation would help it to prevent its MLAs getting scattered. Government formation in the national capital in its assessment would further enable it to make its presence felt nationally. The AAP knows that such a Government cannot be a lasting one. It therefore takes a calculated risk. It continues to denigrate the Congress and take its support. The Congress on the other hand chooses to get insulted in order to defer the prospects of another electoral humiliation. It is hoping to support the AAP for some reasonable period in order to defer the elections in Delhi so as to enable it to politically recover. Both Congress and the AAP have entered in to this political adjustment with a self serving motive. Each wants to outfox the other. The Congress wants the AAP to make a few mistakes so that it can recover its constituency and then force a poll. The AAP knows that it is forming a fragile Government with a short life. It has sacrificed its principle of ‘no Congress support’ in order to make its presence felt nationally by forming a Government in the national capital. When the two Parties jointly constituting a majority in the Assembly are allowing a Government formation with a dishonorable motive, one only hopes that governance and eventually the citizens of Delhi do not become a casualty.
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Arun Jaitley Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha)* Disclaimer: The writer is a freelance journalist and the views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of INVC.
