Delhi Congress MLA Prefers Alliance With AAP

AAP Winning

With feverish back-room politics underway a day after Delhi threw up a hung assembly, the question everyone’s asking is: Who will help whom to form the next government? With AAP having ruled out an alliance with either the BJP or the Congress, the question is how will BJP at 31 plus 1 from its ally Shiromani Akali Dal arrive at the magic figure of 36. Even if independent candidate Rambir Shokeen, who is demanding to be made deputy chief minister, falls in line, the BJP is still three seats away from forming the government. The sole Janata Dal (United) candidate Shoaib Iqbal has ruled out support for the BJP, preferring to ally himself with AAP.

And so that leaves the Congress. According to NDTV, "To break the Congress without attracting the anti-defection law, the BJP will have to bring to its side more than two-thirds -- at least six of that party's eight legislators. A tough task." The Congress, still reeling from the shock defeat, is yet to decide on its next move. A meeting of the eight MLAs has been called this evening. Despite AAP having ruled out any alliance with the Congress, one of winning candidates (who preferred to remain unnamed) told Firstpost he was in favour of an alliance. "We are waiting for the order of the high command. There is no message so far. Shakeel Ahmed (AICC general secretary) has called us for a meeting today. I, for one, am ready for allying with the Aam Admi Party. But it is up to the high command to make a decision and I will abide by that decision. Personally, I am for the Congress party supporting AAP. We should listen to what the public has voted for," said the MLA. Rejecting the possibility of Congress MLAs defecting to the BJP, the MLA said, "The question simply does not arise.

 There are four Muslim candidates among us. There is no chance of going to the BJP. We have strong candidates like Arvinder, Sawhney with us. We are not after power." So who are these eight MLAs and what do their political backgrounds tell us. Two are former ministers who are close to Sheila Dikshit. Haroon Yusuf, who was food and civil supplies minister, has been re-elected from Ballimaran making this is his fifth consecutive term as an MLA. And former urban development minister Arvinder Singh Lovely is back for the fourth time as Congress MLA, winning against his BJP rival from Gandhi Nagar. Then there is the Congress old-timer from Chandini Chowk, four-time MLA Parlad Singh Sawhney. Then there are controversial ones like Jai Kishan, who retained his seat from Sultan Majra. Kishan is known for his frequent run-ins with the law, and according to a report in Gfiles, is an admirer of Sanjay Gandhi. "He has been allegedly involved in several cases of assault, intimidation and riots, including 1984 anti-Sikh riots…In 1998 denied ticket after his name figured in 1984 riots case.” (Read full report here: http://gfilesindia.com/frmArticleDetails.aspx?id=711&Name=Sultanpur%20Majra) Then there is Asif Mohammad Khan who won by a margin of 26,000 seats from Okhla.

Having previously won the Okhla seat on a Rashtriya Janata Dal ticket in the 2009 by-election, Khan then left the RJD and was welcomed by Dikshit into Congress in August. While Khan’s crime record made him a controversial candidate to field, his ‘winnability’ quotient convinced Diskhit to give him a ticket. Seelampur’s Mateen Ahmed too has chequered political history. He won his first election on a Janata Dal ticket in 1991. He switched sides to join the Congress in 1996. He then fought as an Independent candidate after being denied a ticket by the party in 1998, only to return and win on a Congress ticket in 2003, and has remained with the party since. The youngest of the lot is 41-year-old Devender Yadav. He won from Badli constituency by an impressive margin of 23,000, defeating his BJP rival. A former municipal Councillor, Yadav won his first assembly seat in 2008. And finally, there is Hasan Ahmed, a senior Delhi Congress leader and an AICC member from Delhi. He was re-elected from Mustafabad, making this his second term as MLA.