Making Sheila its face in UP indicates Congress accepts defeat: AAP

New Delhi, July 14 (IANS) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday said the nomination of former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit as the Congress’s face in Uttar Pradesh indicated that the Grand Old Party has accepted defeat before going to the battlefield.

Senior AAP leader Dilip Pandey said people across the nation have cornered the Congress which has no credible, honest and clean face available in Punjab and the same was happening in Uttar Pradesh.

“A tainted former Chief Minister (Dikshit), who is facing serious allegations of corruption and inquiry against whom is going on, is being made the party’s face in Uttar Pradesh. This shows that like Punjab the Congress has accepted its defeat in Uttar Pradesh even before going to the polls,” Pandey said.

Pandey, who is also the convener of the party’s Delhi unit, added: “With this move, the Congress is indirectly trying to help the Bharatiya Janata Party in the elections in Uttar Pradesh.”

The Congress on Thursday announced that Dikshit, who ruled Delhi for 15 long years, would be the party’s chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh which is slated to go to the polls in 2017.

Dikshit is facing corruption charges in a Rs 400-crore water tanker scam. Delhi’s Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) is probing the case.

The ACB on Thursday issued summons to Dikshit for questioning on August 26 in the case.