"Alliance Or Not...": Congress Leader Tweaks "7 Seats" Comment As AAP Fumes

Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit on Friday said that Alka Lamba's remark that the party will strengthen itself in all seven seats in Delhi has nothing to do with the decision of an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party.

Sandeep Dikshit told PTI that in order to prepare for any election, a party needed to strengthen itself across the state in all districts, irrespective of an alliance.

"What Alka Lamba said was that our party workers will strengthen themselves in all seven districts. When you strengthen a party, you don't do it selectively, you do it in the entire state. If an alliance happens, then whichever seat they fight from, we will support them and vice versa," Sandeep Dikshit told PTI.

"If we don't strengthen our base in all districts then how will we fight the upcoming polls? Or how are we going to support them?" he added.

Congress leaders from Delhi on Wednesday held a meeting with the party's top leadership to review its preparedness for the Lok Sabha elections.

After the meeting, Alka Lamba had said, "No decision has been taken on whether to have an alliance, but we have been asked to prepare ourselves on all seven seats. We will go to the people strongly after preparing ourselves properly in all seven seats." Following her remarks, the AAP had said there was no point of attending the next meeting of INDIA alliance in Mumbai, if the Congress wants to go solo in Delhi.

Criticising AAP for its reaction on Alka Lamba's statement, Sandeep Dikshit said the party is "acting jumpy." "There might be two reasons for AAP getting jumpy in this case. One is that they might have got an indication from Amit Shah's speech where he said 'AAP will quit INDIA' and they often listen to the BJP. Secondly, AAP might be missing out on being a party that is talked about," Sandeep Dikshit said.

He claimed that there is no controversy over alliance and that the AAP's statement is either a "tactic to blackmail them or stay in the news." "There are 543 seats and no other parties are talking like this about alliance. Samajwadi party in UP is going to have far bigger bearing. There is no controversy on alliance. It is the AAP that has to tell us if they are preparing the ground to move away or not. AAP's statement is either a tactic to blackmail or to stay in the news," Sandeep Dikshit said.

"We are way different than the AAP politically, but if they modify themselves and comply with the Congress central leadership, we will support them. The decision for an alliance will be taken by the central leadership," he said

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)