NEW DELHI: The Congress, already weakened by its losses in Haryana and Maharashtra, faces a tough start to 2025 with Arvind Kejriwal‘s Aam Aadmi Party ruling out any alliance with the grand old party for the Delhi assembly elections to be held early next year.
On Wednesday, Kejriwal took to X to reiterate that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will be fighting the election on its own strength in Delhi. “There is no possibility of any alliance with the Congress,” the former Delhi chief minister said in a post.
In a tit-for-tat response, Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav also said that his party will go solo in the polls as it is in a very strong position to win the contest. Yadav claimed the Congress had to pay a heavy price for aligning with the Kejriwal-led outfit in the Lok Sabha election held earlier in the year.
The AAP and the Congress had fought the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Delhi together earlier this year under the INDIA banner but lost on all the seven seats against the BJP.
AAP’s announcement was on expected lines especially after the snub Kejriwal’s party got in Haryana earlier this year at the hands of the Congress. The two parties failed to reach seat-sharing agreement in Haryana despite several rounds of talks as an overconfident state Congress leadership led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda was not willing to accommodate the demands of AAP.
AAP leader Raghav Chadha, who headed the Haryana talks as Arvind Kejriwal was then in jail, was absolutely categorical in rubbishing reports of alliance.
“I am making it clear that AAP will contest the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections on its own strength. There is no question of any alliance. The reports of any kind of alliance between AAP and Congress are baseless. The AAP has won the last three Delhi elections alone, on its own. Fourth time also, when there will be Assembly elections in 2025, AAP will contest based on its work and Arvind Kejriwal’s name, and win. There is no chance of alliance,” Raghav Chadda said.
The Delhi Congress unit, which has always opposed any tie-up with AAP, would be happy with the prospect of contesting the 2025 assembly elections on its own. However, the fact remains that the grand old party has been on the path of steep decline in Delhi and contesting the elections on its own will be a huge challenge for the party leadership.
In the last two assembly elections, the Congress was completely decimated in Delhi as it even failed to open its account. In the 2015 and 2020 assembly polls, the AAP won 67 and 62 seats and the BJP won three and eight seats respectively. The Congress scored two consecutive zeroes in these elections.
Not just that, the party’s vote share which was at 48.1% in 2003 has seen a sharp dip to 4.3% in 2020. in 2013 when the Congress had won 8 seats it had a vote share of 24.6%. However, that came down to around 10% in 2015. A look at the comparative performance of the two parties shows that AAP made massive gains in 2015 and 2020 at the cost of the Congress, while the BJP managed to improve its vote share despite not winning enough seats.
The state Congress leaders have already started raising their pitch against the AAP government, which is at present headed by Atishi. The Delhi Congress chief claimed that during the month-long “Delhi Nyay Yatra” the feedback received from lakhs of people was that the party should go alone in the assembly polls.
Yadav claimed that the AAP has lost credibility and the people’s trust after its leaders — Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Satyender Jain and Sanjay Singh — went to jail in connection with corruption and money-laundering cases.
The Delhi Congress chief had also recently criticised AAP and its national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, for being responsible for the “deteriorating” law and order situation in the national capital.
Yadav also demanded that Kejriwal should ask for the resignation of Delhi chief minister Atishi, the same way he asked for the resignation of former CM Sheila Dixit during the Nirbhaya case.
The Delhi Congress president further alleged that the women are facing the brunt of increasing crimes, including gang wars, firing, murder, rape, harassment and snatching incidents.
These attacks notwithstanding, the road ahead is likely to be very difficult for the Congress. It will be a Herculean task for the party leadership to reclaim the lost ground in Delhi. With the party already under all-round attack within the INDIA bloc over its electoral failures, another dismal show will add to the pressure it faces. Perhaps, a joint contest with AAP may have helped it win some seats and prevent another possible decimation.
(With inputs from agencies)
