With inputs from agencies

NEW DELHI: The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party on Friday engaged in war of words after the two parties failed to stitch an alliance for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.Earlier in the day, the Congress announced that it will fight the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi alone , but maintained that it is still willing to have an alliance with the AAP provided that the tie-up is restricted only to the national capital.The AAP, in turn, wanted such an alliance to extend to Haryana and Punjab as well."We want alliance on all 33 seats with the Congress and not three seats in Delhi. We are capable of defeating the BJP and the Congress on our own in Delhi. We will contest on seven seats alone, Congress candidates will lose their deposits," AAP leader Gopal Rai said.He added,"If an alliance has to be there, it has to be on 33 seats. While Congress is capable of defeating BJP in Punjab but in Delhi, AAP is better placed to win against BJP."Another AAP leader Sanjay Singh said the party was even ready to make the Congress its senior partner in Haryana, but now it has moved ahead.However, sources said there was still a slim chance of an alliance as the AAP might offer a 5:2 seat sharing formula in Delhi, where the party would contest from five seats and the Congress from two seats.Congress leader PC Chacko, who is in-charge of the party in Delhi, on the other hand said that his party was still ready to ally with AAP in Delhi to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party "We (Congress and AAP) are fighting face to face in Delhi, we fought municipality, assembly, and parliamentary elections, so naturally we both have political bitterness between us but we both understand that the political necessity is that we should come together and defeat BJP in Delhi," said Chacko.Citing the vote shares of each party in the 2017 civic polls, Chacko said the Congress had won 31 seats, the AAP 49 seats and together the parties had 80 seats in Delhi.He said while the Congress' vote share was 21 per cent, the AAP got 26 per cent and together the total vote share was 47 per cent."Sanjay Singh met me and we discussed our corresponding strength in the last election in Delhi (in 2017). Congress got 31 seats and AAP got 49 seats and together we had 80 seats. Our vote share was 21 per cent, AAP got 26 per cent votes and in total, we got 47 per cent. There are 7 Lok Sabha seats, we are eligible to get approximately 3 seats while AAP is entitled to 4 seats," Chacko said.Chacko had said that the party was compelled to go on its own as AAP is going back on its stand.