Chandigarh: The rancour in Punjab between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party peaked today with the Congress dubbing Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal "Hitler". The photo of the German dictator, Congress's Pratap Singh Bajwa said, matches that of the AAP leaders.
Hours before, the two parties had sent out a message of unity as Raghav Chadha and Pawan Bansal met in Chandigarh. A photo of the meet, posted on social media, showed the two chatting together in a lawn, the location of which was not divulged.
"Congress and APP in Chandigarh have become the first constituents of Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties to implement the decisions and sentiments of INDIA to not let BJP win elections by default," Mr Bansal had posted on X, formerly Twitter.
"Together we will win all the three positions, thus heralding the end of BJP's anti- democracy rule in the country," his post read. It was seconded by Mr Chadha in a Hindi post.
The two parties, known for being more out of step than together, are contesting the civic polls of Chandigarh, where AAP will contest the post of the Mayor. The Congress will focus on the post of the senior deputy mayor and the deputy mayor.
Both parties have hailed it as a strike against the BJP and said they were the first in the INDIA Bloc to contest together. In Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal also had a meeting with Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge.
But the bonhomie came up short in Punjab as Congress's Pratap Singh Bajwa said AAP's "dictatorial governance" matches that of Adolf Hitler.
"The first thing I would like to advise them is to pull down the pictures of Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh from their offices and replace it with Adolf Hitler. And if you carefully see the picture of Hitler, it matches with one of their (AAP) leaders," he said.
The outburst is seen as an expression of the party's frustration as central leadership of both parties came to an understanding barely two days ahead of the Mayoral elections. With Congress candidate for Mayor post, Jasbir Singh Bunty, having to withdraw his nomination, feelings against AAP ran high.
Congress sources indicated that many in the party had expressed concern that an alliance with AAP will weaken their party .
Earlier today, a huge fight broke out between the BJP and Congress-AAP workers at the municipal corporation office in Chandigarh as Mr Bunty went to withdraw his nomination.