The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will contest the upcoming Delhi elections “on its own strength,” Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday, adding that there is “no possibility of any alliance with Congress.”
The confirmation by AAP chief came soon after reports started doing rounds that Congress and AAP were in the final stages of agreement for an alliance in the Assembly polls in the national capital.
Reports doing the rounds claimed that the Congress had sought 15 seats as part of an alliance deal for the 2025 Delhi elections.
The speculation sparked after a recent meeting of Kejriwal and Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi at NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar’s residence.
It is worth mentioning that this isn’t the first time Kejriwal has dismissed the possibility of AAP-Congress alliance in Delhi. Earlier this month, he made it clear that his party, which is aiming for a third consecutive term, has no plans to get into coalition for the Delhi Assembly polls.
Also, Kejriwal’s latest announcement came in continuation with the AAP’s decision in the Haryana Assembly elections in October this year when the party ditched Congress-led INDIA bloc and fought the polls on its own.
Both the parties – Congress and AAP – had attempted to get into an alliance in Haryana, but nothing materialised in the end as the seat-sharing talks failed to yield any consensus.
The decision of the AAP leader also comes within days after a major poll debacle of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the 2024 Maharashtra election. The Congress is part of the MVA, which also has Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction, and Uddhav Thackeray headed Shiv Sena in alliance.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, both Congress and AAP contested together in Delhi under the Opposition INDIA bloc.
Out of seven parliamentary constituencies in Delhi, the AAP had contested on four, while Congress fielded it candidates on remaining three, but neither of the parties could open the account as the BJP swept all the seats in the capital city.
2025 Delhi Assembly election date: Voting for the 70-seat Delhi Assembly is scheduled for February 2025.
With inputs from agencies.
Link to article –
No alliance with Congress, AAP to go solo in Delhi elections, confirms Arvind Kejriwal
