Electoral pact with AAP was for Lok Sabha polls only: Delhi Congress

A day after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced that it will fight solo in the upcoming Delhi assembly elections, Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav echoed similar views on Friday that the AAP-Congress alliance was only for the Lok Sabha elections, adding that the party will play the role of a “strong opposition” and it will undergo a revival in coming days.

Yadav said the Congress tried to make a strong alliance in the form the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc ahead of the general elections to “save democracy”.

“Many like-minded people came together in this fight along with AAP. We contested the elections in good coordination and people have accepted it as the vote shares have gone up. However, I would also like to clarify that our alliance was limited for Lok Sabha polls... by playing the role of a strong opposition in Delhi, we will revive the party,” said Yadav.

On Thursday, AAP Delhi convener Gopal Rai said its tie-up in Delhi was limited to the Lok Sabha elections.

“Several parties fought elections together and AAP was also a part of it. As of now, there is no alliance for the Delhi Assembly polls,” he announced after a meeting of the AAP MLAs at chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s house.

AAP and Congress had jointly fought the elections in Delhi on a seat-sharing basis under which Congress contested the North East Delhi, North West Delhi and Chandni Chowk seats and the remaining four seats of South Delhi, East Delhi, West Delhi and New Delhi were contested by AAP candidates. BJP has managed to win all seven seats in Delhi. However, its vote share and winning margins have gone down.

“We held discussions with our seniors on Thursday... We will work on the shortcomings and why increased vote share could not be converted into seats. We will address the shortcomings and by playing the role of a strong opposition in Delhi, we will bring Congress back in Delhi too,” Yadav added.

Currently, the Congress has no MLAs in the 70-member Delhi assembly. AAP has a majority of 62 MLAs and BJP has eight members.

BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla criticised the Congress and AAP alliance as a “friendship of selfishness.” “Now AAP and Congress will abuse each other in Delhi too. This is the real face of the alliance,” he said.