AAP to launch full statehood movement for Delhi from March 10

New Delhi, March 5 (IANS) The Aam Aadmi Party will launch its full statehood movement for Delhi from March 10.

Speaking to the media, AAP leader Gopal Rai on Tuesday said the party had decided to launch the movement from March 1 but now it will start from March 10 with 1,000 teams across the city.

He also said that now party chief and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will not go on a fast on the issue. Kejriwal had earlier said he will go on an indefinite hunger strike from March 1 for the demand of full statehood for Delhi.

Rai said that the party will also gear up for the Lok Sabha campaign after a "no" from the Congress.

Blaming the Congress for weakening the AAP in Delhi, he said that his party was ready for an alliance not because it was weak but for the country.

"The people of the country want to defeat the BJP. We were okay with the alliance as the grand alliance was of the view that anti-BJP votes should not be divided. Our teams and party members were also not ready for it, but we were thinking about the nation first, despite having hundreds of issue with the Congress."

Rai said wherever the opposition is strong, the Congress wants to field its candidates. "The country wants that there should be single opposition candidate against the BJP.

"But there is an undeclared alliance between the Congress and the BJP. This is clear from the actions of the Congress. It is stubborn to put own candidate in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh."

The final announcement from the Congress on Tuesday showed that it wanted to help the BJP, he alleged. "For them (Congress), the party is bigger than the country."