New Delhi. Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Delhi state convener Gopal Rai on Thursday said his party’s alliance with the Congress was only for the Lok Sabha elections and indicated that the ruling party will contest next year’s assembly elections alone.
After a meeting of party MLAs and senior leaders at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence, Rai told PTI that the party has extended full support to India in the Lok Sabha elections. He said, “The India alliance was only for contesting the Lok Sabha elections. Several parties had contested the elections together and AAP was also a part of it. At present, there is no alliance for the Delhi Assembly elections.” Rai said that in the meeting held on Thursday, it was agreed that the mandate in the Lok Sabha elections was against “dictatorship”.
He said, “We fought the elections in extremely unfavorable circumstances. Our top leaders are in jail. The margin of victory has decreased in all seats.” Talking to reporters, Rai said that there was disappointment among AAP workers after Kejriwal’s arrest, but the party remained united even in difficult circumstances and fought a strong battle against dictatorship. He said that the biggest advantage of the AAP-Congress alliance was that the margin of victory of BJP candidates in Delhi has decreased.
AAP’s Delhi convenor said, “It was decided in the meeting that on June 8, we will hold a meeting with councillors and on June 13, there will be a meeting with all party workers of Delhi. Since Kejriwal is in jail, our struggle will continue.” He said that it was also decided that after the model code of conduct is lifted, all party MLAs will hold meetings with workers on Saturday and Sunday to speed up development work. In the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, the AAP-Congress alliance did not get a single seat, while the BJP won all seven parliamentary seats for a record third time.