AAP: Cong not a team player, must clear ordinance stance

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday said that it will find it difficult to attend future meetings of opposition parties where the Congress is present if the latter does not publicly denounce a controversial ordinance granting the Centre control over Delhi's bureaucracy, highlighting fissures within the opposition camp.

- Alok KN Mishra, Saubhadra Chatterji and Anirban Guha Roy

Four leaders from the AAP Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann, and parliamentarians Raghav Chadha and Sanjay Singh - attended the meeting at Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's residence, but hours later, the party released a statement strongly criticising the Congress.

The statement said that in the meeting, many political parties urged the Congress to publicly denounce the ordinance. "However, the Congress refused to do so," added the statement that was issued even as other opposition leaders were speaking in a joint press conference in Patna, which the AAP leaders skipped.

"In personal discussions, senior Congress leaders have hinted that their party might informally or formally abstain from voting on it in the Rajya Sabha. The Congress' abstention from voting on this issue will help the BJP immensely in furthering its attack on Indian democracy. It is high time that Congress decides whether it stands with the people of Delhi or the Modi government," the statement said.