Aam Aadmi Party is already gearing up for the important election next year. It refuses an alliance with the Congress and accuses BJP of tampering with the voters’ lists. What is AAP’s gameplan to win the election fourth time in a row?
Our Bureau
New Delhi
The Assembly polls in Delhi are expected to be held in early 2025. AAP won 62 out of the 70 seats in the 2020 assembly elections and BJP secured eighth seats. Though the elections is a few weeks away, the battle is already heating up.
In a major development, the INDIA bloc alliance for Delhi that was stitched during the 2024 general elections appears short-lived as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday ruled out any possibility of an alliance with the Congress. In a post on X, Kejriwal said, “Aam Aadmi Party will be fighting this election on its own strength in Delhi. There is no possibility of any alliance with Congress.”
The statement comes after reports suggested that Congress and AAP were in the final stages of talks for a Delhi election alliance. Earlier on December 7, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee President Devendra Yadav had criticised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, for being responsible for the “deteriorating” law and order situation in the national capital.
Devendra Yadav also demanded that Kejriwal should ask for the resignation of Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, the same way he asked for the resignation of former CM Shiela Dixit during the Nirbhaya case. The Delhi Congress president further alleged that the women are facing the brunt of increasing crimes, including gang wars, firing, murder, rape, harassment and snatching incidents.
As the clock ticks for the important election, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday held a meeting with concerned officials to review poll preparedness for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections scheduled for 2025. In a post on X, the ECI stated that it had conducted a meeting with the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Delhi, the District Election Officer (DEO), the Returning Officer (RO), the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), and other nodal officials to “review the progress of the ongoing Special Summary Revision 2025 and the poll preparedness for the forthcoming General Election to the Delhi Legislative Assembly.”
Meanwhile, the AAP has already released two lists of candidates for the Assembly polls. In its second list, the party announced the names of 20 candidates following a crucial meeting of its Political Affairs Committee (PAC), chaired by party convenor Arvind Kejriwal.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led party has changed former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s constituency from Patparganj to Jangpura. Awadh Ojha has been announced as the candidate for Sisodia’s previous seat, Patparganj.
An AAP delegation, led by Kejriwal, met the Election Commission on Wednesday, accusing the BJP of orchestrating a “mass voter deletion” conspiracy in Delhi ahead of the Assembly elections.
Addressing the media after the meeting, AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal claimed that they had submitted 3,000 pages of evidence to the Election Commission, alleging that the BJP was engaging in a large-scale effort to remove the names of legitimate voters in Delhi.
On the other hand, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva, responding to Kejriwal’s allegations on Thursday, accused the AAP of making “false promises,” particularly regarding financial support for women in Punjab and Delhi, which, he said, has not materialised.
Sachdeva further stated that the public in Delhi and across the country now trusts only the ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’. He highlighted that the BJP is providing financial support to women in several states, including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Odisha, and Maharashtra.
But Kejriwal further alleged that a BJP official in Shahdara had secretly submitted a list of 11,008 voters for deletion, and the Election Commission had begun working on the matter covertly. “In Janakpuri, 24 BJP workers applied to remove 4,874 votes. In Tughlakabad, 15 BJP workers sought the deletion of 2,435 votes. At Booth No. 117 in Tughlakabad, there are 1,337 registered voters, yet two individuals applied to delete 554 votes–this means they attempted to remove 40 per cent of votes from a single booth,” he claimed.
“Most of the votes being deleted belong to the poor, Scheduled Castes, Dalit communities, especially those living in slums. For a common person, a single vote holds immense value, as it grants them citizenship of this country,” he said.
Kejriwal emphasised that AAP had demanded an immediate halt to such mass deletions and called for FIRs to be filed against those submitting such applications.
“The Election Commission gave us three or four assurances,” Kejriwal stated. “First, no mass deletion will take place before the elections. Secondly, anyone seeking to delete votes will now have to fill out Form 7. Before any votes are deleted, a field inquiry will be conducted by the Booth Level Officer (BLO), accompanied by representatives from other political parties. We believe this will prevent wrongful deletions.”
He added, “Another assurance we received is that if a single individual applies for more than five deletions, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) will personally conduct the field inquiry, again accompanied by representatives of other parties.”
Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia on Wednesday also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of deleting voters’ names from the electoral rolls ahead of the Delhi Assembly election to defeat Arvind Kejriwal. Sisodia alleged that the BJP had submitted a large number of applications for the deletion of voters’ names from the electoral rolls, including those who have been living in the same area for years.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Raghav Chadha, Sisodia said, “When it has become impossible for them (BJP) to defeat AAP in Delhi, and when it has become impossible to stop Arvind Kejriwal, they are trying to defeat AAP by cutting votes. A large number of applications have been made to delete voters’ names from the electoral rolls, including those of people who have been living in the same area for years.”
Chadha while addressing the press conference questioned how the BJP-led central government could delete voters’ names from the electoral rolls by keeping political parties in the dark.
“One cannot get more than 10 voter deletion applications in a day, yet in a single day several 100 applications have been taken from one person for voter deletion. How can you do voter deletion by keeping you and the political parties in the dark? If someone’s vote is cut, the booth level officer of the election commission should go door to door and check whether that person is living there or not. And when he goes for house to house verification, he should take along with him representatives of all the political parties so that the entire process is conducted in a transparent manner,” Chadha said.
Also in a related development, AAP MP Raghav Chadha on Wednesday put the final nail on the end of the INDIA bloc in the national capital and said that the party, which won the last three Delhi elections independently, will contest the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections 2025 on its own and win.
Speaking to reporters, Raghav Chadha said, “I am making it clear that AAP will contest the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections on its own strength. There is no question of any alliance. The reports of any kind of alliance between AAP and Congress are baseless. The AAP has won the last three Delhi elections alone, on its own. Fourth time also, when there will be Assembly elections in 2025, AAP will contest based on its work and Arvind Kejriwal’s name, and win. There is no chance of alliance.”
His comment came after AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal earlier ruled out any possibility of an alliance with the Congress. The statement comes after reports suggested that Congress and AAP were in the final stages of talks for a Delhi election alliance.
The Delhi Congress president has alleged that the women are facing the brunt of increasing crimes, including gang wars, firing, murder, rape, harassment and snatching incidents. Congress, which was in power in Delhi for 15 successive years, has performed poorly in the past two assembly polls, failing to win any seat.
With no tie-up with AAP for the next year’s elections, the Congress party now faces a real dilemma as both AAP and BJP gear up for the big election.
