Delhi Elections: Kejriwal says ‘No’ to alliance, Congress responds with tough stance

Both parties had fought the Lok Sabha elections together, in which AAP had contested four seats and Congress had contested three.

The Aam Aadmi Party’s chief Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday that there will be no alliance in the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections. In a press conference at the party headquarters, he said that AAP will fight the election alone. Referring to the attack on him on Saturday, he said, “Law and order in Delhi has been deteriorating for the past two-three years. Bullets are being fired openly on the streets. It seems as if gangsters have taken over Delhi.”

No Alliance in Delhi

Both parties had fought the Lok Sabha elections together, in which AAP had contested four seats and Congress had contested three. Although they lost all the seats, they reduced the margin of BJP’s victory. When Kejriwal was asked whether AAP will fight the Delhi Assembly elections in alliance, he said in a press conference, “There will be no alliance in Delhi.”

Meanwhile, within a few hours, Delhi Congress President Devendra Yadav retaliated, saying that they were clear from the beginning that there would be no alliance with AAP in the Assembly elections, as AAP’s alliance had caused losses to their candidates in the Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress failed to secure any seats in the 2015 and 2020 Assembly elections, while the AAP secured dominant victories, winning 67 and 62 out of 70 seats respectively. However, in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress outperformed the AAP. In Haryana, AAP had demanded 10 seats, while Congress was willing to give only seven, which led to the failure of the talks. The top leaders of Congress, including Rahul Gandhi, had wanted an alliance between the two parties. Congress is attacking AAP on the issues of Delhi governance and has organised a ‘Delhi Nyay Yatra’ on the lines of Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, which is ending on December 4.