Lok Sabha elections 2019: High command to take final call, says Sheila Dikshit

After weeks of trying to convince the senior Congress leadership of not going with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi for the upcoming elections, party state president Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday said that she has left the decision to the high command.

“I am leaving the decision to the party high-command. I will go by whatever they decide. I have already conveyed my personal views are on the alliance, so we will have to see what they decide now,” Dikshit said on Tuesday.

The Delhi Congress chief had called a meeting of senior state party leaders at her house on Tuesday morning, where it was reportedly decided that they would abide by the high command’s decision. Apart from Dikshit, two of the three working presidents — Haroon Yusuf and Rajesh Lilothia — and senior party leaders Ramakant Goswami and Mangat Ram Singhal attended the meeting.

Yusuf said that the unanimous stand of the Delhi Congress unit is that a tie-up will damage the work done by the leadership in rebuilding the party cadre in the city.“The final call will, however, be taken by the top leadership,” Yusuf said.

The decision taken in the meeting will be conveyed to the party leadership.

Senior Delhi Congress leaders reiterated they were still not in favour of a partnership.

“This (Congress-AAP alliance) will hamper the chances of the party in Delhi. We have conveyed this to the party leadership and so have our party workers. This will be a major jolt to their morale before the elections,” said a Congress leader, who did not wish to be named.

Dikshit’s meeting came just right after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar flew to the national capital to discuss the need for the alliance with the Congress and AAP leaders.

Pawar first met Gandhi and senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge, and then AAP’s Sanjay Singh separately.

While the state leadership continued to press their demand against a tie-up with the AAP, Congress’s Delhi unit in-charge PC Chacko said that the call for an alliance was above the decision of any local leader. “I cannot make a decision on the alliance and neither can Dikshit. It is not about Delhi alone it is about the party’s policy on alliance nationwide. We are expecting a positive decision,” Chacko said.

Senior Delhi Congress leaders said that after the booth-level convention addressed by party president Rahul Gandhi on March 11, there has been no public meeting or rally because of confusion over the alliance.

Dikshit, however, said the party had started its campaigns on the local level with workers meeting voters, and internal meetings. “We have started our campaigns too. I don’t want to compare our strategy with other parties. It will pickup pace once we announce our candidates and they strategise how they want to go about in their respective constituencies,” Dikshit said.