Congress Rules Out Alliance With AAP in Delhi, To Contest Assembly Elections Alone

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday announced that the party will contest the upcoming assembly elections in Delhi alone, ruling out any possibility of contesting the elections in alliance with its ally the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav stated that the party will contest all 70 seats in the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections. According to the reports, the Delhi Congress president clarified that there will be no alliance with any party for the elections, thus putting an end to any possibility of contesting the polls as the INDI Alliance ally.

Devendra Yadav, however, maintained suspense over the Congress party’s chief ministerial face in the upcoming assembly elections, saying that the decision regarding the party’s CM candidate will be made by the elected Congress Legislative Party (CLP) after the elections. “After the elections, the leader will be chosen, as is customary in Congress,” he said.

Notably, the Congress and the AAP are part of the Opposition's INDI Alliance at the national level. However, the same coordination doesn’t show up in Delhi, when it comes to the state unit of both the parties.

INDI Alliance Appears to be Divided After Lok Sabha Elections

The INDI Alliance unitedly consist of around 37 like-minded parties, both regional and national, who joined forces ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to challenge the BJP -led government at the Centre under Prime Minister Narendra Modi . Although there was a concerted effort during India's general elections in 2024, the subsequent state assembly elections have not shown the same level of enthusiasm among parties.

With Congress declaring their clear intent to contest all 70 Delhi assembly seats, it appears that after going alone in the Haryana assembly polls, the grand old party will once more not ally with their alliance partner, the AAP.

The dates for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections 2025 are expected to be announced in the coming days as the tenure for the current AAP government is slated to expire on February 15th, next year. However, the political temperature is heating up in the national capital with the political parties making moves to ensure their solid presence on the electoral battleground.

Earlier, the ruling AAP surprised everyone by announcing the first list of candidates for the upcoming assembly election, even before the announcement of the poll dates. AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal has also intensified his efforts for poll campaigning in the national capital.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP announced 43 committees for assembly poll-related work on Thursday, including those for campaigns aimed at women, youngsters, SCs, OBCs and contact with central-scheme beneficiaries. The names of the committee members were declared as per the direction of BJP state chief Virendra Sachdeva.

The committees were formed for various election-related work, including nomination, media relations, suggesting campaign narrative, social media, documentation, data management, special contacts and logistics, among others.