NEW DELHI, Mar 23:
Terming the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) an “aberration,” the Congress has said that its magic won’t be repeated in the upcoming general elections.
“It is an aberration,” senior Congress leader and Minister for Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma told PTI, adding that the AAP would “certainly not” be able to reprise its Delhi assembly electoral performance in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The nine-phase Lok Sabha polls, which starts on April 7, concludes with the counting of votes on May 16.
“They (AAP) are self-professed anarchists who do not believe in the system but want to destroy the system and have no alternative model to offer,” Sharma said.
AAP, born out of Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption agitation, created history by winning 28 seats in the 70-member Delhi assembly elections on its debut. The party formed the Government with Arvind Kejriwal as chief minister and resigned on February 14 after 48 days in power.
The party has announced more than 300 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections and plans to take on several big-wigs, including BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Asked whether the Congress is banking on the AAP and other non-Congress and non-BJP political parties to stop Modi, Sharma said: “We will stop our own. We are not looking for any other party.” (PTI)