Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal announced on Sunday that the party would contest the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections independently, dismissing any possibility of an alliance with the Congress. His statement comes at a time when the Congress is reeling from electoral defeats in Maharashtra and Haryana.

The Delhi Assembly polls, scheduled for February 2025, will determine the composition of the 70-member legislature, where AAP currently holds 62 seats. Until now, Kejriwal had avoided commenting on a potential AAP-Congress alliance, leading to speculation that he might leave room for a last-minute agreement. 

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However, at a press conference on Sunday, he made his stance clear, stating, “There will be no alliance in Delhi,” when asked about the speculations about his party’s seat-sharing talks with the Congress.

The elections are set to test AAP's governance record against the BJP’s attempts to expand its base in the capital. The INDIA bloc, an alliance of 26 opposition parties, had hoped to unify anti-BJP votes in Delhi, but Kejriwal’s announcement signals a potential fracture in unity. 

Although AAP and Congress formed an alliance for the Lok Sabha polls in the national capital, they failed to win a single seat as the BJP swept all seven constituencies. In the 2020 Assembly elections, AAP secured 62 seats, the BJP won eight, and the Congress was reduced to zero. 

Earlier, during the Haryana Assembly elections in October, similar talks between AAP and Congress fell through, resulting in a BJP victory.

AAP, which emerged from the India Against Corruption movement targeting the Congress-led UPA government, has gradually sidelined Congress in Delhi. The party ended Congress’s 15-year rule in 2013 and went on to secure landslide victories in the 2015 and 2020 Assembly elections. AAP also ousted Congress in Punjab in 2022, won five seats in Gujarat with 14 percent of the vote share, and made inroads in Goa.

However, the BJP’s dominance and cases against AAP leaders in the excise policy case have brought AAP closer to Congress in recent years. During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, both parties contested together under the INDIA bloc in Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Goa, and Chandigarh.

Meanwhile, the BJP will begin outreach efforts on December 5 to gather public feedback for its Delhi Assembly poll manifesto under the theme "Meri Delhi, Mera Sankalp BJP," party MP Ramvir Bidhuri announced on Monday. Speaking at a press conference, he shared a phone number and the hashtag #BJPManifesto2025, encouraging people to share suggestions for the manifesto via social media.