'People won't forgive Congress if it withdraws support to AAP'

The people of Delhi will not forgive the Congress if it withdraws support to the Arvind Kejriwal-led government, Aam Aadmi Party leader Prashant Bhushan said on Wednesday.

He said Lok Sabha elections are the next target for his party after its success in the Delhi assembly polls.

"We are not in an alliance with the Congress. The Congress gave us support because of its own compulsions. We said we won't accept any conditions," Bhushan told reporters.

To a query on what the AAP would do if the Congress withdraws support, Bhushan said, "The people of Delhi won't forgive the Congress if it pulls down the people's government".

"You are aware that neither did we start out for electoral politics nor for grabbing power. Our aim was the Jan Lokpal and a corruption-free India. But the big parties taunted us and claimed that we won't be able to defeat them in the polls," the senior Supreme Court advocate said.

"We also felt that the people want a change. We elect them (politicians) for five years and they take graft from big companies and make laws which are not in the people's interest," he said.

The AAP's mission is to bring about a transformation in the country to ensure democratic and legal rights to the common man, he said.

The present power structures in the country, including the judicial system, do not guarantee meaningful participation of and rights to the vast majority of people, Bhushan said.

It was time that radical changes were brought about in every sphere of the polity including the bureaucracy, police and judiciary, he said.

The results of Delhi polls had damaged the ego of big political parties, he said, while describing the Bharatiya Janata Party as "overtly communal" and the Congress as "covertly communal."

Image: Prashant Bhushan with fellow AAP leader Mayank Gandhi ' Photograph: Sahil Salvi