Ahead of the forthcoming Assembly elections, senior Congress leader Ajay Maken on Saturday said that former Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal’s progress “helps” the BJP.

Maken, who is the Congress’ national Treasurer, asserted that to contest against the BJP, the Congress has to be strong at the national level.

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Addressing a press conference at the party’s newly inaugurated headquarters, he said, “Arvind Kejriwal’s progress helps BJP. To contest against the BJP, the Congress has to be strong at the national level. BJP can’t be fought weakening Congress. Everyone should understand this.”

In response to a question on contesting the Delhi Assembly elections alone, the senior leader said, “Both in Haryana and Delhi, we wanted to have an alliance with AAP. But after Kejriwal came out of jail, he announced himself to contest all the 90 Assembly seats in Haryana. At that time our talks for alliance were in the advanced stage. He himself refused.”

“In Delhi after the Lok Sabha elections, they only said they will fight the elections separately,” he said.

Notably, the AAP and Congress, which are part of the INDIA bloc, had contested the Lok Sabha elections 2024 together in Delhi. In the general elections, out of the seven parliamentary seats, both the parties drew a blank.

Referring to the previous Congress government in Delhi, the AICC Treasurer said, “In Delhi, till Sheila Dikshit was the Chief Minister, we kept on winning all the seven Lok Sabha seats. And we stopped the BJP.”

“After AAP came to power in Delhi, it is happening contrary, BJP is winning all the seven seats. Then who is with the BJP ?,” he asked.

In the 2020 Assembly polls, the AAP won 62 assembly seats against BJP’s eight while in 2015 polls, AAP bagged 67 seats and BJP won only three seats.Congress drew a blank on both these occasions.

Elections to the 70-member Assembly will be held on February 5 and the counting of votes will take place on February 8.