Oppn leaders want AAP to join ranks

The Opposition parties will now push for the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) entry into their unity club even as it missed the first bus due to an unenthusiastic Congress.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led party was not invited to the May 26 lunch hosted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the first such meeting of the Opposition parties that are trying to form a united front.

A source said ignoring the AAP does not make any sense and hoped that the party would soon find a place among the Opposition ranks.

The source said they would take the initiative to bring in the AAP though the Congress feels that the party is slowly disintegrating.

“The Congress seems allergic to the AAP. They have a score to settle. But the scenario has changed. You need to have all like-minded parties under one umbrella. The Congress feels the AAP does not have the sting it used to have once. That may be partially true but it is not going to disintegrate as they like to believe,” a senior Opposition leader said.

Cong puts onus on others
The Congress had put the onus on other parties to invite the AAP for the meeting but the leaders wondered why should they call somebody for a lunch hosted by Sonia. Another source said some Opposition leaders had sought to impress upon Sonia to ask her leaders to get in touch with Kejriwal.

Though many want the AAP to strengthen the Opposition’s ranks, they are not enthused with Kejriwal’s one-man shows earlier. It will also be difficult for Kejriwal as he had made his political career out of targeting UPA leaders, including NCP’s Sharad Yadav and RJD’s Lalu Prasad.

Kejriwal is in good terms with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar. He also has supporters in the CPM.

The AAP chief had in April expressed willingness to join the Opposition in the fight against the BJP after a breakfast meeting with Kerala Chief Minister and senior CPM leader Pinarayi Vijayan here, where he called for an alliance of “all good people”.

Besides the AAP, Naveen Patnaik-led BJD was also not invited to the luncheon.
DH News Service