‘AAP will contest Delhi election alone’: Gopal Rai rules out alliance for 2025 polls

Delhi minister Gopal Rai clarified that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will contest the 2025 Delhi assembly election “alone”, despite being a part of the opposition INDIA bloc. Rai said that as far as the assembly elections are concerned, no alliance has been formed with any other party.

After a meeting of party MLAs and senior leaders at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence here, Rai told PTI that the party gave full support to the INDIA bloc in the Lok Sabha polls.

"The INDIA bloc was only for contesting the Lok Sabha polls. 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 told PTI.

When asked about the Delhi election next year, the AAP leader said, “This is clear from the very first day that the INDIA alliance was formed for Lok Sabha elections. As far as Vidhan Sabha is concerned, no alliance has been formed. AAP will fight elections with its full strength.”

The AAP and Congress contested as allies of INDIA bloc in all seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi. While AAP contested the polls on four seats, Congress fielded its candidates from three seats. However, the BJP won all seven seats in the capital, delivering a hat-trick of performance.

The Aam Aadmi Party contested a total of 22 seats across Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Assam in the 2024 general elections, but only ended up bagging three seats from Punjab. This was the first general election for AAP as a national party.

In Punjab, Congress and AAP contested the elections separately, and not as part of the INDIA bloc.

Assembly polls in Delhi are expected to be held in early 2025. Congress could not win a single seat in the Delhi assembly polls held in 2020 and 2015. While AAP won 62 out of the 70 seats, BJP secured eight seats in the last assembly polls.

(With inputs from agencies)