AAP-Congress on ground camaraderie amid undercurrent of differences

The groundswell at Netrang in Bharuch on Saturday turned into a political spectacle as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers gathered with their yellow and blue party flags around a cutout of Rahul Gandhi while waiting for his arrival along with Congress workers.

On the third day of the Gujarat leg of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, as it proceeded from Bodeli in Chhota Udepur district to Rajpipla in Narmada and then to Netrang in Bharuch, the party flags of Congress and AAP were seen together. However, an undercurrent of differences was unmissable.

Faisal Patel and his sister Mumtaz Siddiqui, the son and daughter of late Congress veteran Ahmed Patel, remained conspicuous by their absence. Both had earlier openly expressed their disappointment over AAP Dediapada MLA and party’s Gujarat working president Chaitar Vasava contesting from Bharuch, their father’s stronghold, as part of the INDIA seat-sharing deal for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Speaking with The Indian Express, Faisal Patel on Saturday said, “I am in Delhi, taking care of my mother and my daughter as I am a single parent. According to me, faith comes first, then family, followed by other things.”

The on-ground camaraderie was also amiss on the bright red jeep that Rahul Gandhi rode on Saturday. Even as Chaitar stood behind Gandhi, the Congress MP did not acknowledge him in public while he interacted with locals in Netrang.

On Thursday, when the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra entered the state in Jhalod in Dahod district, Gandhi did not mention AAP Gujarat chief Isudan Gadhvi and national joint secretary Gopal Italia in his address. He shared the stage with the AAP leaders and even accepted the customary tribal bow and arrow memento from the duo.

In Netrang, on Saturday, after he