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Congress MP Manish Tewari stated on Saturday that the opposition alliance INDIA bloc was formed to "safeguard the soul of the country" and said the alliance was not just forged for the Lok Sabha elections.
His remark came a day after Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut expressed concerns over the lack of coordination within the INDIA alliance, blaming Congress for its disarray since the Lok Sabha elections. "I agree with what Omar Abdullah said. We fought the Lok Sabha elections together and the results were also good. After that, it was the responsibility of all of us, especially Congress, to keep the INDIA alliance alive, sit together and show the way forward," Raut had said. "Leaders like Omar Abdullah, Mamta Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal all say that the INDIA alliance has no existence now." Amid all this, Tiwari told ANI, "INDIA alliance gave a good performance in the country (Lok Sabha elections), because of which BJP could not perform well... The future course of action will be decided by all INDIA leaders together. INDIA alliance was not formed merely for the Lok Sabha elections, it was formed to safeguard the soul of the country..." "It was formed to save the 'Idea of India'," he pointed out. Meanwhile, AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal has also said that the Delhi assembly elections will be a direct contest between the AAP and the BJP and not an election of the INDIA bloc "Delhi assembly election is between AAP and the BJP. It is not the election of the INDIA alliance. I wholeheartedly express my gratitude to all those parties for supporting us. Mamata Banerjee is supporting us. Akhilesh Yadav is supporting us. I have learnt through media that the (Uddhav) Thackeray ji's party is supporting us," Kejriwal had said. The Delhi assembly polls will be held in a single phase on February 5 and the counting of votes will take place on February 8. The last date for filing nominations is January 17. The date for scrutiny of nominations is January 18. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is January 20. A three-way contest is on the cards in Delhi between the ruling AAP, BJP and Congress. Congress, which was in power for 15 consecutive years in Delhi, has suffered setbacks in the last two assembly elections and has failed to win any seat. AAP dominated the 2020 assembly elections by winning 62 out of 70 seats while the BJP got eight seats. (ANI)
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