NEW DELHI: The possibility of a seat-sharing alliance with Aam Aadmi Party is still very much open despite the strong views of a section of Congress's Delhi unit. A survey of party cadre on the question will be a critical factor in the decision, senior Congress sources said.On a day when the rift in Delhi Congress was out in the open with state chief Sheila Dikshit and her predecessor Ajay Maken openly differing over the utility and validity of the survey, well-placed sources said the matter of an alliance with AAP was not yet settled. They said the party's current "no pact" stance could well be revised.Party sources said there was more at stake than just seven LS seats as the capital was seen to enjoy political prominence beyond these numbers. "There is no reason to make things easy for BJP," said a party leader. This line of argument, however, did not hold in previous discussions with Congress president Rahul Gandhi where a majority of Delhi leaders voted against any truck with AAP.A poll alliance with AAP now has the support of a section of the Congress leadership. “There is no reason to make things easy for BJP,” said a party leader. This line of argument, however, did not hold in previous discussions with Congress president Rahul Gandhi where a majority of Delhi leaders voted against any truck with AAP.Since then, Sonia Gandhi has had a meeting with Dikshit, where the need to consider “larger issues” was understood to have been stressed. Dikshit, however, again rejected the AAP proposal for an alliance. Reacting to a survey of Congress cadre, Dikshit said the party had already taken a decision that there should be no alliance.On the other hand, Maken responded by pointing out that the survey was backed by Rahul. “This is Rahul Gandhi’s decision. It is under directions of Rahulji that this referendum, in a way, is being done. So, if anyone is questioning this in Congress, I think it is wrong,” he said.Close to 40,000 responses have been received on Congress’s Shakti App and the results of the survey have been conveyed to Rahul for a final decision.Dikshit asserted that the issue was not open. “There should be no confusion. Our stand remains what it was,” she said and added that Rahul had also agreed to the decision taken unanimously by senior Delhi leaders at a meeting last month. She said some people were trying to “cause confusion”.Referring to party in-charge for Delhi affairs P C Chacko, Dikshit said the survey was being done by some people on their own. “Rahulji is not in Delhi and he does not give orders for such surveys,” she said. She added that this move was “overriding” the decision taken against the alliance by Rahul himself.The Congress had on Wednesday initiated the survey through an interactive voice response system with a pre-recorded message from Chacko. It sought to know if party workers were in favour of their joining hands with AAP to defeat BJP in Delhi in the Lok Sabha elections Party sources said AAP remained keen on an alliance and among the proposals was a 3:3:1 seat-sharing formula where Congress and AAP split the seats and one went to a “neutral” candidate, possibly one of BJP rebels, Yashwant Sinha or Kirti Azad.Interestingly, as president of Delhi Congress, Maken was critical of AAP’s policies and vehemently opposed seat-sharing. His views, however, changed later as he called for an alliance with AAP to prevent BJP from winning all seven seats in Delhi. At a meeting with Rahul last month, attended by Dikshit, three working presidents of Delhi Congress and former PCC presidents, Maken and Chacko were the only voices in favour of the alliance.

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