Kejriwal rules out any AAP-Cong alliance for Delhi polls | Latest News Delhi
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday reiterated that his party will not form an alliance with the Congress for the upcoming Delhi assembly polls, scheduled to be held early next year.
The Congress too said that it is very clear that it will not contest the polls in alliance with the AAP.
In the 2020 Delhi assembly elections, the AAP had won 62 seats in the 70-member House, and the BJP secured the other eight, while the Congress failed to win a single seat.
Earlier this year, the AAP and the Congress had jointly fought the Lok Sabha elections from Delhi as part of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc, but the alliance failed to pay dividends as the BJP won all seven seats in the Capital.
Later, during the run-up to the Haryana assembly polls in October, there was speculation that the two parties may join hands to take on the BJP-led government, but ultimately, both the AAP and the Congress decided to go it alone.
On Sunday, when Kejriwal was asked about a possible tie up for the coming assembly polls, he said, “There will be no alliance in Delhi.”
Responding to Kejriwal’s statement. Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Devender Yadav said that the alliance with the AAP cost his party in the Lok Sabha polls.
“Had the Congress contested the Lok Sabha elections alone, considering the immense influence Rahul Gandhi wields among the voters, and the people’s support for the Congress, the party Congress would have been the gainer. The Congress candidates suffered setbacks due to the alliance with the AAP,” Yadav said.
To be sure, over the past month, several former Congress MLAs have switched over to the AAP, with Kejriwal’s party naming at least three such leaders to its first list of nominees.
Meanwhile, the BJP said that there is mutual discord between the AAP and the Congress, but “the people of Delhi have decided to wholeheartedly support the BJP this time”, party spokesperson RP Singh said.
This is the second time this week that the AAP has ruled out any partnership with the Congress ahead of the Delhi assembly polls — on Wednesday, spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar had stated that the party will not contest the polls in an alliance.
“We will contest the Delhi Assembly elections alone. On one side, it’s the overconfident Congress, and on the other, it is the arrogant Bharatiya Janata Party. We will keep our head down and let our work done in the last 10 years speak for itself,” she had said.
