AAP, BJP ready for fresh poll, Congress to back AAP?

New Delhi  :  The Congress Tuesday indicated it might give unconditional support to the Aam Adami Party (AAP) to form a government in Delhi even as the AAP pledged to neither give nor take legislative backing from anyone and the BJP said it was ready for fresh elections.

As uncertainty over government formation continued after elections threw up a hung assembly, the Congress — which won only eight seats — appeared wary of another election which could devastate it further in the city.

In contrast, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the single largest group in the 70-seat house with 31 members, and the AAP, which won 28 seats in its very first election, remained defiant, refusing to form a government.

“Considering the present situation, we are not in a position to form the government. We are ready for re-election,” BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Harsh Vardhan said.

A party source told IANS: “Even the possibility of forming a minority government seems bleak.”

Former BJP president Nitin Gadkari told the newly-elected legislators to prepare for fresh polls, party sources said.

Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel added: “Instead of trying form a coalition, we would rather sit in the opposition.”

AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal made it clear that his party won’t prop up the BJP in Delhi.

Speaking a day after senior colleague Prashant Bhushan suggested giving issue-based support to the BJP, Kejriwal said: “Neither we will take support nor give support (to form a government). There is no question.”

Kejriwal instead advised the BJP to take the help of the Congress to form a government. “Let the BJP and Congress join hands… Both indulge in corruption.”

“AAP would neither support nor take support from any party to form the government,” his colleague Manish Sisodia told IANS.

With indications that this situation could lead to another election, Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmad told IANS: “There is a feeling in the party in Delhi to extend support unconditionally to AAP.

“But we need to take the opinion of (our) MLAs in Delhi and then we will approach the party high command.” He said the reason for this was that the Congress wanted to keep “communal forces at bay”.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said — while underlining that he was speaking in “personal capacity” — that the Congress should give “unconditional support” to the AAP to form a government in Delhi.

Meanwhile, a snap poll Tuesday said most people in Delhi want the one-year-old AAP, which took birth following the anti-corruption campaign of Gandhian Anna Hazare, to form a government.

Of the 600 people polled, the ABP News-IPSOS Snap Poll showed that 66 percent favour AAP in power although it is only the second largest group in the assembly. Only 29 percent felt the same way for the BJP.

At the same time, 64 percent people in Delhi “are open to another election as no party has got a complete majority”.

The survey was conducted by ABP News-IPSOS Snap Tuesday in 25 of the 70 assembly constituencies.

Kejriwal earlier said that AAP’s near victory in Delhi — the result Sunday ended 15 years of Congress rule — had given “a ray of hope” to the nation.

He appealed to the many “good people” in other political forces “who feel suffocated” to either revolt and reform their parties from within or quit their groups and join the AAP.