Why did Congress promise statehood in 2015, asks Gopal Rai

NEW DELHI: A day after

AAP

national convener Arvind Kejriwal, the party’s Delhi unit convener, Gopal Rai, hit out at Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday for saying that

full statehood

for the capital won’t be part of Congress’ manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections.


Rai asked her to reveal the compulsions that had forced Congress to promise full statehood in

2015

. “Dikshit’s statement makes it clear that she and her party had lied to the people of the national capital till today for decades on this important issue,” Rai said. AAP, whose main plank in the elections is full statehood, had earlier claimed that Congress was not serious about the issue.

On Tuesday, Dikshit said granting full statehood to Delhi was not possible and the issue won’t feature in Congress’ manifesto. Later in the day, after criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not fulfilling BJP’s 2014 promise of full statehood, Kejriwal said if “you had voted for Congress in 2009, they also lied to you on statehood”.

On Wednesday, Rai pointed out that in November 2013, Dikshit had said the problem of coordination among various agencies in Delhi would have been resolved if Delhi were a full state. “On what basis had Dikshit got a resolution passed by the assembly and sent it to the Centre? Whom is she trying to fool when it is known to everyone that statehood for Delhi can be granted by the passage of a Constitution amendment Bill in Parliament? If an issue to be decided in Parliament is not an issue for the Lok Sabha elections, what will be the issue,” Rai added.

AAP will not allow these parties to barter Delhiites’ rights for petty political gains, said Rai.