With a grand alliance nowhere in sight for AAP, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will now have to face the 2019 Lok Sabha polls alone.

With a grand alliance nowhere in sight for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will now have to face the 2019 Lok Sabha polls alone. His recent move to increase the MLA funds in Delhi by 250 percent can be read as a reconciliation with this reality.

Whether Kejriwal’s plea to increase MLA funds from Rs 4 crore a year to Rs 10 crore in Delhi would be successful or face the same consequences as his attempt to strike an alliance with the Congress depends on the response of the central government. The proposal requires the Centre's assent.

In recent times, Kejriwal's attitude towards the Congress has seen a drastic change. The Delhi chief minister, who rose to power after continuously lashing out at the Congress which was then in power, has recently been seen trying to get cosy with it. But almost everytime, he was spurned by Congress.

Only recently, the Congress refrained from asking support from the AAP for its candidate in the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman election. It was seen as a not so subtle message that the AAP is a non-grata in a possible grand alliance of the Opposition parties, with the Congress at the helm of affairs.

The AAP was quick to read the message and its Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh retorted with a jibe, “If Rahul Gandhi can hug Narendra Modi, why can't he ask Arvind Kejriwal for support to his party’s candidate?”

It should be remembered that Kejriwal was among the few Opposition leaders who had welcomed Rahul Gandhi’s move to hug Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Parliament.

This is not the first time the AAP has been left red-faced by the Congress. In fact, it has became a routine affair by now. Only recently, the AAP was criticised by Congress leader Sheila Dixit when top AAP leaders were continuing a protest in the Lieutenant-Governor’s office. The Congress leader termed this protest an excuse not to work.

Her statement came at a time when speculations were rife that AAP and Congress were heading to be a part of a national grand alliance, with support pouring in for AAP from non-NDA parties like Trinamool Congress, Telugu Desam Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Congress' ally in Karnataka Janata Dal (Secular).

Congress has not only drowned AAP's hope of holding a greater stake in national politics but also of maintaining the party's present grip in Delhi.

In the last three years, AAP hardly made any progress outside the territory of the national capital despite several attempts.

The MCD polls held last year, in which AAP's performance was disastrous, indicate the party’s sway in the national capital region too is fast shrinking. The MCD poll results were seen as a warning sign that the erstwhile Congress voters, who ensured AAP's historic victory in Delhi in 2015 Assembly polls, might be shifting back to the grand old party’s fold. In such a situation, an alliance with the Congress would save the day for the AAP.

Now, Kejriwal seems to be trying to fight future elections only on a development-based narrative. But that too requires huge amount of funds to be spent on development projects seamlessly.

The abrupt increase in MLA funds, if it becomes a reality, would help the party in bypassing the L-G's office in a number of development works. Though the Delhi government has to keep the L-G office in loop to proceed with projects proposed by departments, in case of projects related to MLA funds, such formality is not required.

AAP MLA Anil Bajpai, when asked about the formality required to be observed while spending MLA funds, said, “At present, we are not required to take permission from the L-G's office to spend MLA funds. But I do not know what would be the norm if it becomes Rs 10 crore a year.”

The new proposal would also help shift focus from the work of a BJP MP to that done by AAP. For the fund, an MP can spend in his constituency only Rs 4 crore a year.