AAP is 'B team' of Congress, says Harsh Vardhan

NEW DELHI: With AAP exploring the possibility of forming a government, BJP's chief ministerial candidate, Harsh Vardhan, on Wednesday accused the party of entering into a "secret understanding" with Congress against its stated position of not taking support from any party to form a government.

At his first press conference after the elections, Vardhan accused AAP of changing its stand on government formation at the "behest" of Congress. Terming AAP as a "B team" of Congress, he claimed that both parties had entered into an "unholy alliance" before the elections to keep BJP away from power. "The alliance between Congress and AAP is already there. They are enacting a drama of seeking people's support on the issue of government formation. Everything has been decided already," he said, indicating that AAP would form the government with support from Congress.

Slamming AAP, Vardhan also sought clarifications from the party on 14 points, such as why it was adopting delaying tactics on government formation and its "links" with the Congress. " Arvind Kejriwal and Sonia Gandhi should tell people what is the secret deal with AAP for support," he said in one of the 14 posers.

BJP's position on the issue appeared to be in contradiction of its stand in the past few days as it was attacking AAP for shying away from forming the government when Congress had offered it unconditional support.

"AAP is an ally of Congress. AAP's decision to seek people's view on taking support from Congress is nothing but drama. Congress allied with AAP to keep BJP out of power. Otherwise, why did Rahul Gandhi heap praise on AAP after results were declared," asked Vardhan.

"After winning 28 seats, AAP had announced it will neither cooperate with Congress and BJP nor seek their help to form the government. After that this party changed its agenda at the instance of Congress," he alleged.

The BJP leader refused to answer questions when asked about the party's criticism of AAP that it was shying away from forming the government because of apprehensions that it will not be able to fulfill the promises made to people like cutting power tariff by 50 per cent.