On Wednesday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will be contesting the Delhi election alone”. He further added that “there is no possibility of any alliance with the Congress .” “Aam Aadmi Party will be fighting this election on its own strength in Delhi. There is no possibility of any alliance with Congress,” Kejriwal posted on X.
His reaction comes following media reports that the two parties were likely to have a tie up for the 70-member Delhi Assembly polls due in February. Earlier in December 2024, Kejriwal had ruled out the possibility of the alliance between the AAP and the Congress for the Delhi elections. The recent buzz over alliance between the two Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners was fuelled by cancellation of the Congress’ ‘Nyay Chaupal’ event scheduled on Wednesday in which party leader Rahul Gandhi was to participate.
The event was to be held as culmination of the “Nyay Yatra” taken out by the Delhi Congress across Delhi ahead of the assembly polls. On Tuesday, Kejriwal met NCP chief Sharad Pawar amid the rising demand in the INDIA block to appoint West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as head of the political grouping presently chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. However, neither Kejriwal nor AAP have so far commented on the discussions in the meeting.
These developments were seen as the Congress and AAP making their moves in view of the upcoming Delhi polls so that the future options remain open, according to the media reports. The AAP and Congress fought the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi earlier this year but lost on all the seven seats against the BJP. However, they failed to reach a seat-sharing agreement ahead of the Haryana Assembly polls in October despite several rounds of talks.
The AAP has so far released two lists of its total 31 candidates. The list of remaining candidates is expected to come soon.
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