Hanuman Beniwal
Credit. X/@hanumanbeniwal
New Delhi: After Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party, Rajasthan MP Hanuman Beniwal-led Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), another I.N.D.I.A bloc party, on Saturday announced support for AAP in the Delhi election.
Beniwal's announcement came after AAP Rajya Sabha floor leader Sanjay Singh met him here. As Beniwal supported Kejriwal's demand to include Jats across the country in the central list of OBCs, the AAP chief thanked his RLP counterpart for the support in the elections.
The RLP chief went to the extent of saying that Congress "should have refrained" from contesting against AAP in Delhi as "they haven’t managed to get any seats here for years".
Earlier, Shiv Sena (UBT) also indicated that it is inclined to support AAP in Delhi while Trinamool Congress and SP made it clear that it would support the Kejriwal-led party.
The RLP also joining the bandwagon may not be providing a significant numerical advantage for AAP as all four parties have very negligible or no presence at all in the capital but AAP believes it will create a goodwill impact.
The development also comes as a disappointment for the Congress, which has gone out in the Delhi polls against the AAP, as more parties have expressed its reservations about the party in the running of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc.
"The BJP and Congress do not want new people or regional parties to emerge in politics. Their agenda has always been to use others for their benefit and then abandon them...I officially declare that the RLP stands with the AAP against both the BJP and Congress in Delhi," Beniwal said.
He said Congress should have supported AAP "instead of losing everywhere, which is a significant humiliation for them".
In the Rajasthan Assembly bypolls in November last year, Congress had not initiated any talks with I.N.D.I.A. allies RLP and Bharatiya Adivasi Party and all contested against each other while in Lok Sabha they all worked together and wrested several seats from the BJP.
"During the Rajasthan elections, there were discussions about forming an alliance with AAP. If that alliance had materialised, it would have transformed the political landscape of Rajasthan. However, it could not happen at the time. Subsequently, we became part of the I.N.D.I.A. alliance," Beniwal said.