AAP to go solo in Delhi polls, shuns Congress

The Aam Aadmi Party will contest the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections alone against an “overconfident” Congress, a party member said on Wednesday.

“In Delhi, AAP will contest alone. We are capable of fighting the overconfident Congress and arrogant BJP alone,” AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said.

She blamed the Congress for not taking alliance partners seriously in Haryana and ultimately facing a rout due to its overconfidence.

“The Congress has had zero seats in the Delhi Assembly for the past 10 years, yet AAP gave Congress three seats in the Lok Sabha polls; still they did not feel necessary to take allies along in Haryana,” she said.

Kakkar claimed that Congress thwarted all efforts by the INDIA bloc to forge an alliance in Haryana and “didn't feel it necessary to take its ally along with them.”

The AAP and Congress failed to stitch up a pre-poll alliance due to differences over seat sharing.

While the AAP lost all seats it contested in Haryana, the Congress fell well short of the majority mark, making way for the ruling BJP to return for a third consecutive time.

The AAP and the Congress had fought Lok Sabha elections together in Haryana.

In the election held earlier in the year, the AAP lost the sole seat it contested and the Congress won five out of 10 seats.

Kakkar attributed the AAP's winning one seat in the Jammu and Kashmir to the party's development-driven politics.

AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal is scheduled to visit Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, she said.

The Aam Aadmi Party registered its first victory in assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday when its candidate Mehraj Malik defeated nearest rival from the BJP in Doda constituency by a margin of over 4,538 votes.

“Mehraj Malik is a very hard-working person, and he has been with the party since the time of the movement and struggle,” Kakkar said.

Malik, a District Development Council member, polled 23,228 votes against BJP's Gajay Singh Rana's 18,690 votes.