Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday said there will be no alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The decision was taken in a meeting of the Delhi Congress leaders with Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
“There will be no alliance with AAP. The decision was taken unanimously,” said Dikshit while exiting the meeting.
This announcement puts to rest weeks of speculations of an alliance between Congress and AAP in Delhi, which, according to Delhi chief minister and AAP head Arvind Kejriwal, was “necessary to defeat BJP”.
Senior leaders who were present in the meeting said the leadership also had a problem with the seat distribution proposed by the AAP.
“We are a national party capable of winning the election in Delhi all by ourselves. Why should we fight only on one or two seats?” a party leader said.
The Delhi Congress on Tuesday began talks to devise its strategy for the Lok Sabha elections after a meeting was called by party president Rahul Gandhi. The Congress meeting took place in the backdrop of the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party announcing the names of its candidates for six of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.
On Sunday, an AAP leader had said that the party had not ruled out the possibility of reopening talks for an alliance with the Congress if a “serious attempt” was made.
The AAP leader said that the party wanted a “structured” dialogue with the Congress. “We lost patience with the on again and off again approach of the Congress that forced us to announce the names,” he said.
On February 21, Arvind Kejriwal said that they had tried to convince the Congress for an alliance but their offer had been refused. “If today our alliance with Congress is done, the BJP will lose all seven seats in Delhi,” Kejriwal had said.
The AAP has been trying to enter into an alliance with the Congress in Delhi for a long time now and has time and again raised the issue.