Rahul vs Kejriwal: Swords drawn from the sheath…what will be the future of India Alliance now?

arun Posted On January 17, 2025

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Congress and Aam Aadmi Party have intensified attacks on each other in Delhi. The way Rahul Gandhi targeted Aam Aadmi Party in his first rally clearly indicates that the series of attacks and counter-attacks between the two parties will intensify in the future. In such a situation, the question is whether India Alliance is now a thing of the past?

Authored by Chandra Prakash Pandey

Electoral battle between Congress and AAP intensifies, ‘ceasefire’ ends

Rahul Gandhi attacks AAP and ends the confusion of workers

Arvind Kejriwal also showed his attitude by responding to Rahul’s taunts with taunts

Contradictions of India Alliance are visible in the election battle of Delhi

The two important parties of India Alliance, Congress and AAP, are attacking each other a lot in Delhi

New Delhi: The battle of Delhi Assembly elections is becoming interesting. Two major components of India Alliance, Aam Aadmi Party and Congress are contesting the elections separately. One has the goal of capturing the throne of Delhi with a huge majority for the third time in a row, while the other has the goal of reviving the party in the national capital. The goals of both seem to be crossing each other’s paths. After initial hesitation, now Congress is completely attacking AAP. In his first rally in Delhi, Rahul Gandhi has put an end to the confusion of party workers and candidates by directly attacking AAP and Kejriwal. Kejriwal also replied to the taunt with a taunt and said that his fight is to save the party, our fight is to save the country. Swords have been drawn between the two parties. In such a situation, the question arises that what is the future of India Alliance?

Confusion is over, now there is no ceasefire situation

Most of the leaders of Delhi Congress have been against the alliance with Aam Aadmi Party since the beginning. They did not want an alliance even in the Lok Sabha elections, but the Congress high command did not pay attention to those voices to corner the NDA at the national level in the Lok Sabha elections. Both the parties were also exploring the possibility of an alliance in the assembly elections, but things did not work out. Leaders like Ajay Maken and Sandeep Dixit opened a direct front against Arvind Kejriwal. On the issue of registration of alleged schemes for women and the elderly, Youth Congress even filed a police complaint against Kejriwal and Atishi accusing them of misleading the public and fraud. Aam Aadmi Party threatened that it would talk to other parties to exclude Congress from the India Alliance. This strategy of pressure worked and for some time there was a ceasefire between the two parties. Due to the central leaders avoiding direct attack on Aam Aadmi Party, Delhi Congress leaders and workers must have been confused about what their stand should be. But Rahul Gandhi’s first rally in Delhi on January 13 put an end to the confusion. By attacking Aam Aadmi Party and Arvind Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi made it clear in a way that a ceasefire is now a distant dream.

Kejriwal’s sarcasm to Rahul’s sarcasm

On January 14, Rahul Gandhi shared a video of Delhi on X and taunted- This is Kejriwal’s ‘shining’ Delhi – Paris wali Delhi! This taunt was on Kejriwal’s promise that if his government is formed, he will turn Delhi into Paris. In response to Rahul Gandhi’s taunt, Kejriwal also taunted him. X wrote, ‘Today Rahul Gandhi came to Delhi. He abused me a lot. But I will not comment on his statements. His fight is to save Congress, my fight is to save the country.’

In response to this taunt of Kejriwal, Congress’ Sandeep Dixit reminded him of his past. The interesting thing is that Kejriwal often keeps accusing that so and so is abusing us, so and so is saying this to us, but in the early days, he himself used to distribute character certificates in bulk. So and so is a thief, so and so is corrupt, so and so is dishonest, if my government is formed, I will put so and so in jail. This series ended when Kejriwal had to apologize to many leaders one after the other in the defamation case. Dikshit taunted Kejriwal by saying that you do not need to save the country but the country needs to save you.

Why is Congress so aggressive on AAP?

Why is Congress so aggressive on Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi? The answer is – do or die situation. Congress, which was in power in Delhi for 15 consecutive years, has fallen into such a bad state that it has not been able to open its account in the last 2 assembly elections. After the rise of Aam Aadmi Party, it had to lose power first in Delhi and later in Punjab. In both the states, Aam Aadmi Party ousted it from power. In recent decades, after BJP, AAP is the second party which has snatched power from Congress in more than one state.

Congress is well aware of the fact that if it has to regain its lost ground in Delhi, then it will not have to be lenient towards Aam Aadmi Party. In Delhi or Punjab, AAP got success at the cost of Congress. Talking about Delhi, the slum dwellers and minorities were the traditional vote bank of Congress but AAP not only made a dent in it but also snatched it completely. That is why Congress is now attacking Aam Aadmi Party.

Is India Alliance over?

In such a situation, the question arises whether India Alliance has disintegrated? The answer is – no. Absolutely not. India Alliance was a national level system whose aim was to stop BJP and Narendra Modi. The way swords have been drawn between Congress and AAP in Delhi is just a glimpse of the contradictions in India Alliance. These contradictions were already there. They were there during the Lok Sabha elections as well. Congress and Left were together in West Bengal and against each other in Kerala. TMC, Left and Congress are all part of India Alliance but during the Lok Sabha elections, the fight was between TMC vs Congress + Left in Bengal. Similarly, the fight was between Congress vs Left in Kerala. Therefore, in the context of India Alliance, the discussion of the rift between AAP and Congress in Delhi will remain only till the elections. After the elections, this discussion will almost end. Like West Bengal and Punjab, Delhi is one of those states where the constituents of the India Alliance are also rivals of each other. In the states where there is a battle between Congress vs BJP or regional parties vs BJP, there will be no discussion of the contradictions of the India Alliance. There are assembly elections in Bihar this year, where Congress is already in the role of an ally of RJD. Therefore, it would be too early to call the India Alliance over.