'Alka Lamba not authorised ... ': Congress in damage control mode after AAP boycott threat over Delhi leader's remarks on Lok Sabha polls

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday got into damage control mode as Aam Aadmi Party threatened to boycott next meeting of opposition's INDIA meeting after Delhi Congress leader Alka Lamba announced that the grand old party will prepare for strong contest on all 7 Lok Sabha seats in the national capital.

"Alka Lamba is a spokesperson but she is not an authorised spokesperson for talking on such important issues. I have said as an in-charge that there were no such discussions in the meeting today. I refute Alka Lamba's statement," said AICC in-charge Delhi Congress Deepak Babaria.


"After the completion of today's meeting I had clearly said that there were no discussions regarding elections or alliance in the meeting. I also said that any discussion of the INDIA alliance will only take place at the level of Mallikarjun Kharge ji," he added.

Deepak Babaria went on to call Alka Lamba "immature spokesperson" and blamed the media for distorting her statement to help the BJP.

"The Aam Aadmi Party should understand that there are attempts to provoke. It should not fall into this trap," he said.

The Congress has also called a meeting of Delhi leaders at party headquarters.

AAP had threatened to boycott the next meeting of INDIA after Alka Lamba said that the Delhi Congress leaders have been told by the party to prepare for a strong contest in all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.



Lamba, however, had made it clear that no decision had been taken on how many seats the party would contest in the next Lok Sabha elections.

However, Arvind Kejriwal's party reacted strongly to her remarks and threatened to boycott the next opposition meeting.

AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said: "If they have decided against alliance in Delhi, there is no point attending the next INDIA alliance meeting."