Delhi Assembly Elections 2025 | Congress ‘postpones’ press meet against Kejriwal; claims need to get more documents

New Delhi: Congress on Sunday did not hold a press conference scheduled to be addressed by national Treasurer Ajay Maken to “further explain” why AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal is an “anti-national”, saying they need to get “some documents”.

Maken had on Saturday announced that he would be holding a press conference along with Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav at the party office at 11:30 am to add more details to the claims he made against Kejriwal on December 25.

As media persons waited for the press meet to start, Delhi Congress spokesperson Abhay Dubey announced only at 12:30 pm that the “important” press conference has been postponed, as they were yet to get “some documents”. He said the press conference would be held in 1-2 days.

However, on Sunday evening, Congress sent invites to media persons for a press conference to be addressed by Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar at the Delhi Congress office on Monday noon.

AAP had on December 26 put the Congress on notice over Maken's “anti-national” barb at Kejriwal and asked them to take action against him within 24 hours or else it will approach I.N.D.I.A. allies to “drop” the party from the Opposition bloc.

As former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh died on December 26 night, AAP did not press on its demand for days but an unrelenting Maken's announcement once again triggered trouble.

No Congress leader was willing to confirm whether the central leadership, including party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, intervened to tone down the rhetoric against Kejriwal.

Rahul was particularly keen to rope in AAP in an alliance in Lok Sabha elections and both parties fought together in Delhi, Haryana and Gujarat, and except for Assam, AAP did not field candidates against Congress. In Haryana too, Rahul wanted an alliance but state leadership went against it.

As soon as the Lok Sabha elections were over, both AAP and Congress made it clear that they would not be fighting the Assembly elections together. AAP believes that Congress is a spent force in Delhi while the latter still bores the anger against AAP for making it an insignificant power in the capital.

Congress leaders like Maken and others were of the view that AAP had eaten up Congress space and only an aggressive posture would help the party regain its space.

However, a section of the party is of the view that while Congress could vigorously fight against AAP, it should not end up in a slanging match and damage relationships at the national level.

They were not against fielding senior leaders like Sandeep Dikshit fighting against Kejriwal and others but were disapproving of the tone of the rhetoric.

AAP leaders had contended that they had not attacked Congress leadership even when they campaigned against Congress in the Haryana Assembly elections and during the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab.

Kejriwal on Saturday alleged that there was a “covert” alliance between Congress and BJP in Delhi and they should make it public.