{"id":351607,"date":"2024-12-27T01:00:54","date_gmt":"2024-12-27T06:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=351607"},"modified":"2024-12-27T01:00:55","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T06:30:55","slug":"with-cong-aap-in-open-war-has-the-indi-bloc-outlived-its-utility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/with-cong-aap-in-open-war-has-the-indi-bloc-outlived-its-utility\/","title":{"rendered":"With Cong-AAP in open war, has the INDI bloc outlived its utility?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"571\" src=\"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2023\/09\/Amit-Agnihotri-INDIA-alliance-1024x571.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-345695\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2023\/09\/Amit-Agnihotri-INDIA-alliance-1024x571.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2023\/09\/Amit-Agnihotri-INDIA-alliance-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2023\/09\/Amit-Agnihotri-INDIA-alliance-768x428.jpg 768w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2023\/09\/Amit-Agnihotri-INDIA-alliance-1536x857.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2023\/09\/Amit-Agnihotri-INDIA-alliance-2048x1143.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2023\/09\/Amit-Agnihotri-INDIA-alliance-696x388.jpg 696w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2023\/09\/Amit-Agnihotri-INDIA-alliance-1068x596.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2023\/09\/Amit-Agnihotri-INDIA-alliance-753x420.jpg 753w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2023\/09\/Amit-Agnihotri-INDIA-alliance-1920x1071.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>With one-time allies, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, openly attacking each other in their attempts to secure votes ahead of Delhi Assembly polls, the INDI bloc is seemingly headed towards a break up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With just weeks to go for polls,&nbsp;AAP launched a scathing attack on its INDI bloc partner Congress, accusing it of working with Bharatiya Janata Party for the upcoming Delhi polls.&nbsp;AAP also sought Congress&#8217;s removal from the INDIA bloc if action is not taken against Congress leader&#8217;s Ajay Maken&#8217;s recent statement against the AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ajay Maken has described the Congress\u2019 decision to support AAP in forming the government in 2013 as one of the biggest \u201cstrategic blunders\u201d that led to its decline in Delhi.&nbsp;\u201cI feel that today, the current plight of Delhi, as well as that of the Congress, is due to our support to AAP in 2013. It was perhaps a mistake that was made again in this year\u2019s Lok Sabha poll,\u201d he said.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The war between the two INDI bloc allies has escalated ever since the talks for possible alliance in the Assembly polls broke up.&nbsp; Over the past few months the Central leaderships of Congress and AAP have been striving hard to ensure an alliance between the two political outfits.&nbsp;However, the Congress leaders in Delhi haven&#8217;t seemingly forgotten the insult of the then Chief&nbsp;Minister&nbsp;Sheila Dikshit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For&nbsp;Sandeep&nbsp;and the Delhi Congress leaders, the fight is personal. He has also been fielded against Kejriwal from the New Delhi constituency, the Assembly segment earlier represented by Sheila.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It must be pointed out that the massive public outrage fuelled by Kejriwal&#8217;s movement had almost derailed the political careers of several of Sheila&#8217;s prot\u00e9g\u00e9s, including&nbsp;Ajay&nbsp;Maken.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senior Congress leaders have pointed out repeatedly that though there was no case against&nbsp;Sheila&nbsp;Dikshit, the duo of Kejriwal and Anna Hazare had steadfastly continued to demand the resignation of&nbsp;Dikshit&nbsp;and came to power riding on these allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Delhi Congress leaders are now trying to point out the flawed way that Kejriwal targeted the Congress\u2019 tallest leader in Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, and decimated the party from the national capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Congress, which ruled Delhi for 15 years under Sheila\u2019s leadership, has been facing continuous defeat for two previous terms with not even opening its account, in the year 2015 and 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The state unit of the party is adamant that it was time for seeking payback from AAP ahead of the crucial polls and reclaiming the legacy and vote bank of the grand old party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With none of the two INDI bloc partners willing to back down, the national alliance of parties, formed ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls, is now seemingly headed towards cold storage. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It must be understood that over the past decades, the BJP\u2019s voting percentage has remained somewhat intact in the city and it is trying to woo part of its opponents vote base by breaking their sitting ministers and legislators. It is believed that BJP will be a major gainer if&nbsp;AAP&nbsp;and&nbsp;Congress&nbsp;are unable to present a united face in the Delhi polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Legislative Assembly polls in Delhi are scheduled to be held in February 2025. Besides the ruling AAP, the BJP and the Congress are the main contenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AAP has seen decline in winning&nbsp;seats&nbsp;in 2020 as compared to 2015. The party won 67&nbsp;seats&nbsp;in Delhi for the year 2015 and&nbsp;62&nbsp;in 2020. BJP has been gaining ground since 2015 as it registered a gain of five&nbsp;seats&nbsp;in 2020 as compared to three in 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With one-time allies, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, openly attacking each other in their attempts to secure votes ahead of Delhi Assembly polls, the INDI bloc is seemingly headed towards a break up. With just weeks to go for polls,&nbsp;AAP launched a scathing attack on its INDI bloc partner Congress, accusing it of working with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":171,"featured_media":345695,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1801],"tags":[16178,16003,17763],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351607"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351607"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351608,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351607\/revisions\/351608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/345695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}