Former chief minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal Sunday said there will be “no alliance with the Congress” in the Delhi Assembly polls scheduled for February next year. Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) Devender Yadav, in response, said decision-making in the grand old party is not taken in a “totalitarian” and “dictatorial” manner, and that the popular mood is in favour of the Congress.
“There will be no alliance with the Congress in Delhi,” Kejriwal said while addressing a press conference in the Capital. While several senior AAP leaders such as Gopal Rai and Sandeep Pathak had ruled out the possibility of a tie-up with the Congress — the party’s INDIA bloc partner, this is the first time when Kejriwal made a public statement on the matter.
AAP leaders so far maintained that their alliance with the Congress was to fight on the national-level, but not Delhi.
DPCC president Devender Yadav, in a strongly worded response, said the Congress believes in a democratic process of decision-making, done after careful deliberations, and not in a “totalitarian” and “dictatorial” manner, as Kejriwal does.
“The failures of the AAP government have affected the life of the people in various ways. The angry and disillusioned people were taking out their ire at Kejriwal when he tried to mingle with them, which was a reality check for him… If corruption threw Kejriwal out of his ‘Sheesh Mahal’…people will throw him out of government, come February 2025, as they no longer believe in his revdi promises,” Yadav added.
He also reiterated that the Congress will not have any alliance or understanding with any other party but will contest the Delhi elections alone in all the 70 seats.
Sharpening his attacks on the AAP, Yadav said, “…Congress candidates suffered setbacks only due to its alliance with the AAP in the Lok Sabha polls.”
Further, citing the “overwhelming support” the party’s Delhi Nyay Yatra has received from the people in the past 24 days, Yadav said it was a clear indication of the popular mood that is in favour of the Congress. “People want the Congress back in power in Delhi to save them from their present misery,” he said.
The seat-sharing agreement between the AAP and the Congress for the Lok Sabha polls failed in the national capital as the BJP swept all seven seats. In the 2020 Assembly polls, AAP and BJP won 62 and eight out of 70 seats, respectively, the Congress was decimated with zero seats.
AAP and Congress failed to reach a seat-sharing agreement ahead of the Haryana Assembly polls in October despite several rounds of talks.
