Despite being allies in the INDIA bloc, the AAP and the Congress contested the Delhi elections separately.
File photo from a meeting of INDIA bloc where Kejriwal and Congress Chief Kharge shared the stage.
Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece Saamana has criticised the Opposition’s INDIA bloc partners – the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress – for contesting the Delhi elections independently, questioning the rationale behind their alliance if they were to contest separately.
“In Delhi, both AAP and Congress fought to destroy each other, making things easier for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. If this continues, why even form alliances? Just fight to your heart’s content!”
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Despite being allies in the INDIA bloc, the AAP and the Congress contested the Delhi elections separately. The result was a major setback for AAP, whose seat tally plunged from 62 in 2020 to just 22. Congress, on the other hand, once again failed to open its account.
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However, this ended up splitting the opposition vote, contributing to AAP’s defeat. In several constituencies, AAP candidates lost by margins smaller than the votes secured by Congress candidates.
In Jangpura, AAP’s Manish Sisodia lost by just 675 votes, while the Congress candidate secured 7,350 votes.
Similarly, in the New Delhi constituency, Congress’ Sandeep Dikshit polled 4,568 votes, whereas Arvind Kejriwal lost to BJP’s Parvesh Verma by a margin of 4,089 votes.
The pattern was similar in the Haryana elections last year, where AAP and Congress contested separately despite being INDIA bloc allies.
Congress, which was in a strong position, lost narrowly as BJP secured 39.94 per cent vote share, edging out Congress’ 39.09 per cent. AAP’s 1.79 per cent vote share played spoilsport and dented Congress’ prospects of returning to power in Haryana just as Congress hurt AAP’s chances in Delhi.
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