AAP to go solo in Delhi assembly election, slams 'overconfident' Congress

The Aam Aadmi Party blamed the Congress for not taking alliance partners seriously in Haryana and ultimately facing a rout due to its overconfidence.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will fight the upcoming Delhi assembly elections alone against an “overconfident” Congress and “arrogant” BJP, a party spokesperson said on Wednesday after the grand old party's shock defeat in Haryana elections.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and AAP's national convener Arvind Kejriwal. (ANI)

"In Delhi, AAP will contest alone. We are capable of fighting the overconfident Congress and arrogant BJP alone," AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said.

She accused the Congress of not valuing alliance partners, pointing to the party’s performance in recent elections in Haryana as an example of its overconfidence.

"The Congress has had zero seats in the Delhi assembly for the past 10 years, yet AAP gave Congress three seats in the Lok Sabha polls; still they did not feel necessary to take allies along in Haryana," she said.

Kakkar claimed that Congress thwarted all efforts by the INDIA bloc to forge an alliance in Haryana and “didn't feel it necessary to take its ally along with them.” The AAP and the Congress had fought Lok Sabha elections together in Haryana, where the grand old party won five out of 10 seats.

The comments come on the heels of the BJP's decisive victory in Haryana, where the ruling party secured its third consecutive term with 48 seats, while Congress managed to win 37 seats. The AAP, contesting alone, failed to secure any seats in Haryana.

Despite winning nearly the same vote share as the BJP at the state level, Congress's performance was hampered by a more bipolar electoral contest this year. An HT analysis revealed that Congress lost 17 seats due to other parties acting as spoilers.

In 45 seats where Congress finished second, it lost 17 to these spoiler candidates, including independents in 12 assembly constituencies and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in three. While the BJP also lost 12 seats to spoilers, Congress's greater number of losses suggests it had more opportunities to avoid these setbacks.