New Delhi: The disgruntled Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA, Alka Lamba, who recently announced that she would contest as an independent in the upcoming Delhi assembly polls, is now eyeing a comeback to the Congress.
Speaking to ThePrint, Lamba said she is willing to join the Congress if the party offers her ticket to contest the Delhi assembly elections from her current constituency, Chandni Chowk. The remark comes three days after she said she would resign from AAP, claiming that she had taken the decision after consulting the people of her constituency through a jan sabha.
“While I have already reiterated my decision to quit AAP, I have ideological differences with the BJP and hence can’t think of going there for my own sake of righteousness and dignity,” said the Chandni Chowk MLA. “However, if the Congress approached me, which they haven’t so far, I would consider it.”
Lamba, who won the Delhi assembly elections on an AAP ticket, had been with the Congress earlier.
She was part of the Congress women’s wing and served the party in several other capacities too. Her association with the Congress began in 1994 when as a 19-year-old second year BSc student, she joined the party’s student wing, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI).
‘Holding back-to-back meetings in constituency’
Lamba also told ThePrint that she had begun preparations for the Delhi assembly elections by holding back-to-back meetings with the people of her constituency.
She and her team are also preparing for a Tiranga Yatra across the constituency on 15 August to mark Independence Day.
Lamba, however, admitted that most of her constituents still tell her that they would vote for her and the jhaadu (broom), which is the AAP’s poll symbol. “I need to reach a point where it goes beyond voting for AAP’s Alka Lamba to only Alka Lamba,” she said.
The MLA, who has been removed from AAP’s WhatsApp groups, however, claims that the party’s Vidhan Sabha WhatsApp groups still have display pictures with both Kejriwal and her in them. “Why don’t they remove my face from there?” she asked. “It’s because they know I have an identity of my own.”
She also slammed AAP spokespersons referring to her as an attention seeker. “They have nothing better to say,” she said. “How about they give a point-by-point explanation for my accusations or issues with the party and then let’s see.”
Kejriwal’s temper left ‘women MLAs in tears’
Speaking about Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Lamba said she could never accept the frequency at which he would lose his temper. “The other woman MLAs would also agree to this as they would leave meetings bursting out in tears,” she said. “I was the one assigned to console and bring them back so that they don’t go to the media.”
Further claiming that there was no democracy left in the party, Lamba accused Kejriwal of delaying work on the installation of CCTVs in her constituency. “I’ve learnt that a list was prepared regarding the installation plan of CCTVs and my area was not even included in that,” she said, adding that if she doesn’t hear from CM before 10 August on this front, she and her team would sit on a dharna outside his house on that day.
On the AAP resorting to freebies ahead of the assembly polls, Lamba admitted that she was a culprit too. “I won’t deny that I am also a culprit as we believed that at least the basic necessities should be provided free of cost to the people of this country,” she said. “But I feel Arvind Kejriwal has made a mockery of things by not fulfilling most of these promises in the first four and a half years.”
Also read: Arvind Kejriwal has anger issues, calls legislators ‘tuccha’ & ‘gadha’, says Alka Lamba
Surprising some on has guts to say that she wants to join Congress.
Gets my vote for candour and intellectual honesty.