New Delhi, Jul 23 (PTI) Tensions simmering between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress came to a head at the Cockroach Janata Party’s stage at Jantar Mantar over charges of appropriation of the protest.
The interaction that made the faultline all too visible took place on Wednesday between an AAP leader and an activist perceived to be close to the Congress.
The exchange, which escaped the cameras, captured the battle for political ownership of a protest that has emerged as one of the largest youth-led mobilisations in recent years.
For the AAP, which exited the INDIA bloc in June 2025, the Congress’s support for the protest came too late and, more importantly, on terms that it believes undermined the agitation.
“The Congress, through its social media ecosystem, tried to damage the movement from the very beginning. When that narrative didn’t work, they started saying there was no crowd and that the agitation was a flop. Once the movement acquired a life of its own, the Congress tried to take it over,” an AAP leader told PTI.
According to the leader, Congress supporters on social media initially sought to portray the campaign as “India Against Corruption (IAC) 2.0” — a reference to the anti-corruption movement from which the AAP emerged.
The movement that contributed to the UPA’s dethroning lies at the heart of the Congress-AAP distrust.
The Congress believes that the anti-corruption campaign enjoyed covert backing of the RSS-BJP.
The distrust only deepened after Arvind Kejriwal floated the AAP, which ended the Congress’s 15-year rule in Delhi in 2013, defeated it in Punjab in 2022, and emerged as a significant force in Gujarat with five Assembly seats and about 13 per cent vote share the same year.
“Congress forced INDIA allies to send their second-rung leaders initially. Then, once the movement gathered momentum on its own, they tried to hijack it. If they genuinely believed this was an AAP project, why did they later jump into it? I had an exchange of words with Yogendra Yadav, who advises the Congress, at Jantar Mantar yesterday,” AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj told PTI.
The AAP also thinks that the Congress created confusion at a crucial juncture of the agitation by trying to negotiate separately with activist Sonam Wangchuk, who joined the CJP-led protest and began an indefinite hunger strike on June 28.
According to AAP functionaries, on the eve of the CJP’s July 20 march to Parliament, the Congress persuaded Wangchuk to indicate that he would end his fast if political parties assured him that they would raise the issue in Parliament.
The announcement, made from the stage by Gitanjali Wangmo, his wife, on the evening of July 19, came without consulting the CJP leadership, they allege, a claim CJP functionaries concur with.
“It created confusion and hurt the movement just before one of its biggest mobilisations,” claimed another AAP leader, adding that a July 19 social media post by Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose announcing that MPs would meet Wangchuk the next day added to the confusion.
The AAP is also sceptical about the Congress’s protest outside the prime minister’s residence after the police action against students on July 20. Its leaders point out that Rahul Gandhi was silent on the students’ protests until the crackdown flared it up into a national issue.
“He did not utter a word until the evening of July 20, when students were brutalised by the police,” an AAP leader said.
On Wednesday, when Rahul Gandhi was asked at a press conference about the AAP’s allegations, he said the Congress was “fully supporting the students’ movement” and avoided any direct comment on the AAP.
AAP leaders, meanwhile, pointed to remarks made by Wangmo, who questioned the Congress’s approach in a television interview on Thursday.
“We are aligned with every well-meaning individual. Everybody knows it (the Congress protest outside the prime minister’s residence) lacked sincerity. It would have been more sincere if it had been done by joining hands at Jantar Mantar. The public cannot be fooled anymore. Leaders cannot gaslight anymore,” she said.
Another episode that drove the wedge deeper between the once-allies was the opposition MPs’ bid to garner support, in their separate ways, to appeal to Wangchuk to end his fast.
Ghose led one initiative, collecting signatures from 19 MPs, including Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, before submitting the letter.
Later the same day, AAP’s Sanjay Singh led a separate delegation that submitted another letter carrying the signatures of 55 MPs from across the Opposition spectrum, including the Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, CPI(M), Shiv Sena (UBT), DMK, RJD, BJD, Azad Samaj Party, CPI, National Conference, and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.
A Congress Lok Sabha MP framed the AAP’s aggressive pushback against the Congress as reflective of Kejriwal’s ongoing political challenges, particularly the party’s defeat on its home turf in Delhi in 2025 and the Punjab Assembly elections due in 2027.
“The student-led movement has offered the AAP an opportunity to reconnect with urban and young voters who once propelled it to power. Also, as the ruling party in Punjab, it cannot afford to be seen as closely cooperating with the Congress, which is trying to stage a comeback,” the MP said.
The Congress, too, appears divided over how to approach the issue.
While Congress leader Pawan Khera visited the protest site and met Sonam Wangchuk, Congress Seva Dal chief BV Srinivas mocked the CJP leadership on X before deleting the post.
As if correcting an error, the Seva Dal later sent food and drinking water for protesters camping at Jantar Mantar.
Other Opposition parties believe the confrontation serves no purpose.
Leaders of the Shiv Sena (UBT), an INDIA bloc constituent, have privately urged both sides to lower the temperature.
On Wednesday, Kejriwal met Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray at MP Sanjay Raut’s residence. Sena leaders are learnt to have advised AAP that the political bitterness should not overshadow the students’ campaign.
Bharadwaj also sought to play down the significance of the political slugfest.
“The students and Gen Z are not bothered by this. This fight is for the media and X. The campaign is actually playing out on the streets and on Instagram,” he told PTI, suggesting that the political class can ill afford to misread a movement driven by Gen Z’s distinct modes of mobilisation. PTI SBR VN VN
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.