AAP-Congress alliance would have won all seven seats in Delhi with huge margins, says Ajay Maken

Congress leader Ajay Maken said on Wednesday that an alliance between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party would have won all the seven seats in Delhi with huge margins. “Now, we won’t win all seven seats and the margins will be smaller,” he told Hindustan Times in an interview.

Maken said winning seats was about conviction, and expressed confidence that people will vote wisely after taking into account key concerns such as unemployment, injustice to central government employees, slum rehabilitation and sealing of unauthorised buildings in Delhi.

Maken, the former state Congress chief, is the party’s candidate from the New Delhi seat. On April 26, Maken had told The New Indian Express that the Congress would win all seven seats in Delhi.

When asked about the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party votes splitting between his party and the AAP, Maken told Hindustan Times people would vote for his party’s candidates because of their administrative and political experience. “Many of us also have an unblemished track record,” he added.

On AAP candidates, Maken said: “People do not have much confidence in the AAP candidates. But, I must say that some of them have made their mark.”

The Congress leader said the Congress was in a “direct fight” with the BJP when asked if the saffron party or the AAP was the bigger competition.

On full statehood for Delhi, Maken said barring three things – land, law and order and police – the Delhi government should have full administrative powers and the lieutenant governor should act on the aid and advice of the council of ministers.

The Congress leader has said before that full statehood for the national capital, as promised by the AAP in its election manifesto, will be a disaster, and law and order in Delhi will become “as bad as Uttar Pradesh or Bihar”, according to PTI.

The national Capital will vote in the sixth phase on May 12.