AAP, Congress in self-serving exercise, govt won't last long: BJP

New Delhi: BJP on Tuesday alleged that Congress and AAP were collaborating to form government in a "self- serving" exercise with "dishonourable" motive, as Congress wants a breather and fears another electoral humiliation while AAP was keen to prevent its MLAs from being "scattered".

Predicting that such a government will not last long, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said, "Both Congress and the AAP have entered in to this political adjustment with a self serving motive.

"Each wants to outfox the other. The Congress wants the AAP to make a few mistakes so that it can recover its constituency and then force a poll." In an article, Jaitley said that Congress has chosen to get insulted and become the B-team of AAP by supporting its government as in an event of an early re-election it would get squeezed out even more.

The BJP leader charged AAP with falling to the temptation of forming a government in Delhi to have a national presence. To achieve this, AAP resorted to a "farcical referendum" and went back on its commitment of not taking support of the Congress. Congress, Jaitley maintained, is a clear loser in these elections with only eight seats.

"Congress cannot afford an early re-election. It needs breathing time to recover. If no government had been formed in Delhi, a re-election could have been held along with Lok Sabha polls.

In that event, the ‘Modi factor’ would also have influenced the outcome of the polls," Jaitley said. A re-election in Delhi would be polarized between the BJP and the AAP with the Congress squeezed out even more, he added.

BJP maintained that this "convergence of two contradictory interests" is self-serving and is not likely to last long. "Government formation would help it (AAP) to prevent its MLAs getting scattered.

Government formation in the national capital in its assessment would further enable it to make its presence felt nationally.

The AAP knows that such a government cannot be a lasting one. It, therefore, takes a calculated risk. It continues to denigrate the Congress and take its support," Jaitley said.

Meanwhile, Congress has chosen to get insulted in order to defer the prospects of another electoral humiliation, he said.

Jaitley maintained that Congress is trying to buy time by supporting a AAP government for "some reasonable period" so that it can recover politically before the next Assembly elections are held.

BJP charged AAP with sacrificing its principle of "no Congress support" merely to make its presence felt nationally by having a government here though it is aware that it is forming a fragile dispensation.

"When the two parties jointly constituting a majority in the Assembly are allowing a government formation with a dishonourable motive, one only hopes that governance and eventually the citizens of Delhi do not become a casualty," Jaitley said.