Congress party’s Delhi in-charge PC Chacko has welcomed the AAP’s Chandni Chowk MLA Alka Lamba’s intent to come back to the party. He recalled that Alka Lamba had worked for many years as a general secretary of All India Mahila Congress.

“We will always welcome her because she is otherwise also a member of the Congress family. She was the president of the NSUI. There are many people who left the party on different occasions. When they come back, we will always welcome them,” said Chacko.

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His statement came after Alka Lamba said on Friday that it would be an honour for her to rejoin the Congress party.

Alka Lamba, however, clarified that she had not received any proposal from the Congress while expressing her views: “I have not received any proposal from Congress. I have given 20 years to Congress out of my 25 years in politics. When Congress and BJP used to fight in Delhi, people stopped the BJP from forming a government in the state for 15 years. People were again looking for an option to defeat the BJP in the last Assembly elections and Arvind Kejriwal did that.

“Now the talks are about the country. I have been seeing how the Congress had done well in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh… Congress can perform well in the coming Lok Sabha polls, so to give strength to the party we should come forward now,” Lamba remarked.

When asked about her decision to join the Congress again if she received a proposal, Lamba said: “Congress has to decide that. An uninvited guest isn’t welcomed anywhere…. It will be an honour for me (to go back) because I have given 20 years to the Congress.”

Chacko expressed optimism that AAP and the Congress could forge an alliance in Delhi ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. “I had said earlier also that we should go for an alliance in Delhi. Best way to defeat the BJP is to have an alliance with AAP. I and many other people are of this opinion. When the party president takes a decision then everybody will follow that opinion,” he said.

Meanwhile, AAP said no party could force anyone to be a part of its organisation. “If Lamba wants to join another party, she should resign from AAP and do so. But that would mean she would lose her MLA seat and that shall require a lot of courage and conviction,” AAP spokesman Saurabh Bhardwaj said while summing up the situation.

In December last year, Lamba said that the party had sought her resignation after she raised objection over the resolution passed in the Delhi Assembly pressing for revoking Bharat Ratna conferred to the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi over 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

However, Lamba did not make any official announcement regarding her exit from AAP.

Lamba started her political career with National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) when she was just 19 years old. She was elected the Delhi University Students’ Union president (DUSU) in 1995. Lamba went on to join the party and was made the general secretary of All India Mahila Congress in 2002.

She joined Arvind Kejriwal’s party in 2013 and won the Chandni Chowk seat in the Delhi assembly in 2015.