Rahul Gandhi turned down AAP alliance in Delhi, says Arvind Kejriwal

India वोट Kar | April 1, 2019

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Monday, April 1, that there were no talks under way with the Congress on an alliance for Delhi’s 7 Lok Sabha seats, because Congress president Rahul Gandhi had already rejected the idea.

What Kejriwal said

Speaking to reporters at Delhi airport, the Aam Aadmi Party leader said he had met Rahul Gandhi recently, and that there had been only one meeting, at which the Congress chief declined to join hands with the AAP.

Asked about former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s comment that the AAP had never approached her, the 50-year-old leader replied: “I met Rahul. Sheila is much junior to him.”

Kejriwal had been urging the Congress to form a partnership in Delhi for the Lok Sabha election in order to keep the BJP out of power.

Divisions in the Congress

Party sources had said the Congress’s Delhi unit was split on the question, with Dikshit and her three working presidents against a tie-up. A senior Congress source had recently described the chances of an alliance as “thin”, pointing to its long-term impact in Delhi. The source asked how the Congress would take on the AAP in the Assembly election due in 2020 after such a deal, and said the party stood to gain little as it was being offered only 2-3 seats.

Background

The Congress failed to win any seat in Delhi in the 2014 parliamentary election, when the BJP took all 7. Talk of an alliance was driven by the fact that the Congress and the AAP together had polled more votes than the BJP in the capital. Delhi votes on May 12.

What happened next

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, counted on 23 May 2019, the BJP won 303 seats nationally. In the Delhi Assembly election of 2020, the AAP won 62 seats to the BJP’s 8, and Kejriwal remained Chief Minister.

Originally published on 1 April 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.