No possibility of alliance with Congress for Delhi polls: Arvind Kejriwal

In a post on X, Kejriwal said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will be fighting the election on its own strength in Delhi

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday ruled out any possibility of pre-poll alliance with Congress for the 2025 Delhi assembly election.

AAP and Congress contested the 2024 Lok Sabha seats in an alliance in Delhi and other parts of the country. (HT photo)

“Aam Aadmi Party will be fighting this election on its own strength in Delhi. There is no possibility of any alliance with Congress,” Kejriwal said in a post on X amid reports that the two parties could be jointly contesting the elections.

The speculations about the possibility of AAP-Congress alliance were fuelled on Tuesday night after Kejriwal joined INDIA bloc meeting over the alleged tampering of EVMs and VVPAT machines in Maharashtra assembly elections along with senior opposition leaders including those from Congress.

AAP and Congress contested the 2024 Lok Sabha seats in an alliance in Delhi and other parts of the country.

In Delhi, AAP contested four and Congress three Lok Sabha seats, but the INDIA bloc lost all seven seats.

Soon after the Lok Sabha polls, both the Congress and AAP clarified that their alliance was limited to the Lok Sabha election and though they will continue to be the INDIA bloc partners, they will contest the 2025 Delhi assembly election separately.

“No alliance will be formed in Delhi (assembly election),” Kejriwal said when asked during a press conference last week.

A senior AAP leader said the possibility of AAP-Congress alliance for Delhi assembly election was diminished when both parties failed to reach a consensus for an alliance in the Haryana assembly election in October.

In 2020 assembly election, AAP won 62 seats while BJP got 8 while the Congress again got zero seats.

A senior AAP leader on condition of anonymity said the reason behind AAP not favouring the alliance with Congress in Delhi is that both the AAP and Congress largely have common vote bank drawn mostly from the anti-BJP votes.

“In the 2020 assembly election, Congress won only 4% vote share. AAP got 53.5% vote share and BJP got 38.5% vote share. The Congress’s vote share drops to around 1% if we factor in the vote share of the then Congress leaders Arvinder Singh Lovely and Chaudhary Matin Ahmed. Lovely has joined the BJP while Matin Ahmad’s son has joined AAP,” said the above quoted AAP leader.

AAP MP Raghav Chadha on Wednesday clarified that AAP will contest all 70 seats without an alliance.

“AAP has won the last three assembly elections in Delhi on its own strength and has been winning the election. For the fourth time as well, AAP will contest the election alone and will contest the election without any alliance on the basis of the work done by the AAP government. And AAP will win the election,” said Chadha.

The AAP has so far released two lists of 31 candidates for the Delhi election and dropped 18 sitting MLAs, shifted popular leader Manish Sisodia from Patparganj to Jangpura constituency in a bid to counter anti-incumbency against the government.

Delhi Congress spokesperson Anil Bharadwaj said that Congress is fully prepared to contest all 70 seats alone.

“We have recently carried out Delhi Nayay Yatra which covered all 70 seats in Delhi. It got a massive response from the people. Our workers are ready to contest the election across 70 seats,” said Bharadwaj.

Bharadwaj, however, added that “if there is a direction from the central leadership of the Congress regarding alliance, the Delhi unit will follow the directions.”

A response from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is awaited and the copy will be updated whenever it is received.