No possibility: Kejriwal on alliance with Cong for Delhi poll

Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday once again ruled out the possibility of an alliance with the Congress for the Delhi assembly polls, amid reports that the two parties could join hands for the election in the capital.

In a post on X, Kejriwal said the AAP will contest the election on its own strength in Delhi.

"There is no possibility of any alliance with the Congress," the former Delhi chief minister said.

His remarks came amid media reports that the two parties are likely to have a tie-up for the polls to the 70-member Delhi Assembly due in February.

Earlier this month also, Kejriwal had ruled out the possibility of an alliance between his party and the Congress for the Delhi election.

The recent buzz over an alliance between the two Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners was fuelled by the cancellation of the Congress's "Nyay Chaupal" event scheduled for Wednesday. Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi was supposed to participate in the event to mark the culmination of the "Nyay Yatra" taken out by the party ahead of the Delhi Assembly polls.

Kejriwal met Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday amid a rising demand in the INDIA bloc to appoint West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the head of the alliance that is currently chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

However, neither Kejriwal nor the AAP has so far commented on the discussions that took place at the meeting with Pawar.

These developments are being seen as the Congress and the AAP making their moves cautiously in view of the upcoming Delhi polls, so that future options remain open, sources said.

AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha said reports suggesting any possible alliance between his party and the Congress are "completely baseless".

"There is no scope for any alliance in Delhi. I urge everyone not to propagate such baseless rumours. The AAP is fully prepared to contest the election independently," Chadha asserted.

Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh said Kejriwal, the party's national convenor, has cleared it now that no alliance with the Congress is in the offing in Delhi.

The AAP will contest the election independently and defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) "comprehensively again, like it did in 2015 and 2020, winning 67 and 62 seats respectively", Singh asserted.

The AAP and the Congress contested the Lok Sabha election in Delhi together earlier this year but were defeated from all the seven seats by the BJP. However, the two parties failed to finalise a seat-sharing deal for the Haryana Assembly polls in October despite several rounds of talks.

The AAP has so far released two lists containing the names of 31 candidates for the Delhi polls. The names of the remaining candidates are expected to be announced soon.

Out of power in Delhi since 1998, the BJP is making all-out efforts to dethrone the AAP from the capital.