With just over 24 hours left for their fate to be decided, the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have ruled out any possibility of a post-poll alliance in case of a hung Assembly in Delhi.
However, BJP Delhi unit chief Vijay Goel had said on Thursday that the party was open to the possibility of an alliance with the AAP. He had described alliances as a “political need”, and said there were no hard and fast rules in politics and, therefore, an alliance with the AAP could not be ruled out.
The AAP, though, ruled out a post-poll alliance with any political party, stating that “going for a post-poll arrangement would be a betrayal of the people’s trust”.
“We started a new kind of politics which provides an alternative to the traditional brand of politics of the Congress and the BJP. The people’s vote for the AAP is essentially a vote against all the established political parties. Going with either of them would be a treachery of the trust people have reposed in us,” said AAP leader Manish Sisodia.
Meanwhile, the Congress continued to maintain its silence on the likelihood of a fractured mandate in the Assembly. “I don’t want to make any speculation at this stage. Things would be clear in two days,” said Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president, J.P. Agarwal.
The BJP, which had up until polling day dismissed the new party, on Friday conceded that the AAP may have eaten into the anti-incumbency vote in the Capital.
Mr. Goel admitted that the AAP had made the contest triangular. “But whose chances have been dented by them, only time will tell,” he said.
Mr. Goel said the AAP had, to some extent, “broken into anti-incumbency votes which used to come to BJP.”
Both Mr. Goel and the party’s chief ministerial candidate, Harsh Vardhan, were confident that the BJP would get a clear majority in the elections. Asked about the number of seats expected, Mr. Goel said that “clear majority begins with 36 seats” in the 70-member Assembly.
Earlier, Dr. Vardhan had said that the people of Delhi were disillusioned with the 15-year-old government of the Congress. He had told The Hindu that there was “no question of a hung Assembly” and that the party would “definitely bag at least 40 seats”.
