New Delhi:
The BJP's Nitin Gadkari has wagered that Arvind Kejriwal's one-year-old Aam Aadmi Party "will not last more than three months." He also suggested that AAP should partner with the Congress to give Delhi a government.
"They are the B team of the Congress. Both have good internal relations. That is why they should support each other and share power," said Mr Gadkari, who had charge of the BJP's electioneering for the Delhi Assembly polls.
Tomorrow, Mr Kejriwal will be asked by Delhi's Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung if he would like to form government in the national capital as the head of the second largest party in the new Assembly.
He has been invited for discussions by Mr Jung because the BJP, the single-largest party with 32 seats in a hung house, has refused to stake claim saying that it cannot bridge its deficit of four seats.
AAP, which has 28 seats, has so far insisted that it will not tie up with either the BJP or the Congress to form government. The Congress, which AAP decimated in its dream debut, has eight seats and numerically, AAP can reach the magic 36 with its support.
Mr Gadkari said AAP's reluctance to do so was because they would find it difficult to fulfill promises made in their manifesto. "They can't give so much water and reduce power tariff by half. They can't implement their manifesto. That is why they don't want power," he alleged, adding, "AAP is an immature party. They are changing their stand every day."
He also attributed the success of AAP to Mr Kejriwal's association with Gandhian activist Anna Hazare, with whom he had engineered a huge anti-graft movement in 2011.
BJP spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had recently ridiculed the new party, describing it as an "Aam-Amrud party" that dreams of stopping Narendra Modi and the BJP.
But other senior leaders of the BJP have acknowledged the power of the year-old party that seems to have stolen its thunder.