Delhi Assembly polls: Confident of victory, AAP rules out pre-poll alliance

Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party will not have an alliance with any party, including the Congress, for the February 8 Assembly elections, a party leader said on Thursday.

Speaking to IANS, the leader, who did not want to be identified, said the AAP is confident that it will come back to power on its own, and dismissed all talks of any tie-up.

"We are not going for an alliance with any party in the Assembly elections. We are winning the elections on our own and all the speculations of going with any other political party are incorrect," the leader said.

 

The AAP was formed in 2012 and the Arvind Kejriwal-headed party overthrew the 15-year rule of the Congress, led by three-time Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, in 2013.

In the 2013 Assembly elections, the Congress had secured a vote share of 24.55 per cent, the BJP had secured 33.07 per cent vote share and the AAP had secured 29.49 per cent.

As the BJP, the single-largest party, had bagged 31 seats, five seats less than the required majority in the 70-member house, the AAP and the Congress, with 28 and eight seats, subsequently joined the hands to form a government but it only lasted 49 days.

In the 2015 Assembly polls, the AAP bagged 67 out of 70 seats with its vote share jumping up to 54.34 per cent. The BJP's vote share was 32.19 per cent, while that of Congress had shrunk to 9.65 per cent. The BJP managed to get three seats and became the opposition, while the Congress was left with no seats.

After the two elections, the city witnessed the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. While before the general elections, the AAP had been saying that it will not have any alliance with the Congress, speculations had persisted about a possible electoral alliance between the two.

During the general elections, Kejriwal had said the Congress had "almost said no" for an alliance, while accepting that his party was desperate for an alliance "to save the nation".

Delhi will go for polls on February 8 and the results will be out on February 11.