The stage was set for senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to hold a meeting with leaders of the party’s Delhi unit and people who have been part of its month-long ‘Dilli Nyay Yatra’ Wednesday. On Tuesday night though came the message that the event had been cancelled and the meeting called off due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
A few hours later, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal announced for the second time in as many weeks that his party will not tie up with the Congress for the Delhi Assembly polls, expected to be held in February next year.
The connection between the two developments, sources said, is the lingering hope and belief of the Congress senior leadership that the two parties will ultimately come together before the polls. While both the AAP as well as the Congress’s Delhi unit have publicly denied any possibility of collaboration, Congress sources said that what has kept this hope and belief alive is that behind-the-scenes, negotiations are still taking place.
Publicly, on Tuesday, if Kejriwal put out on X that “Aam Aadmi Party will be fighting this election on its own strength in Delhi. There is no possibility of any alliance with Congress”, Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav told reporters: “We will contest the Assembly elections alone and we are in a very strong position to come back to power. We will not have any tie-up with the corrupt Kejriwal party; we have already paid a heavy price for aligning with the AAP during the Lok Sabha polls.”
Gandhi staying away from Wednesday’s event only underlines this gap between the Congress’s central leadership and state unit on the issue. No senior leadership turned up for the entire duration of the Dilli Nyay Yatra, which ended on December 7, either, though the Congress had earlier announced that Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the party chief ministers would be joining the march – modelled after Rahul Gandhi’s successful Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Sources said the Congress leadership did not want to risk antagonising a mercurial Kejriwal by participating in a yatra that was designed precisely to target the AAP government in Delhi.
On the cancellation of Wednesday’s event, a source in the All India Congress Committee (AICC) said, “The yatra was targeting the AAP on a daily basis. In such a situation, the senior leadership’s attendance would have sent the wrong message and led to issues if an alliance was to take place.”
Congress insiders, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said discussions with the AAP were still underway. “Multiple rounds of meetings have taken place. The only hurdle is that the two parties are not able to come to an agreement on the number of seats to share. It will take time to reach a consensus,” a senior Delhi Congress leader said.
The AAP and Congress have fought elections on a seat-sharing pact once earlier – during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, with the AAP contesting four seats and the Congress three in Delhi, and not meeting any success. After the polls, both the parties had pointed fingers towards each other and cited coordination issues.
For many, the differences between the two parties are too sharp to be easily overlooked, with the AAP’s rise resting on the Congress’s decline. The party that ruled Delhi for 15 straight years has been struggling in the Capital since the AAP’s rise, demolished by the latter in the Assembly polls and by the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. It hasn’t had an MP in Delhi now since 2009 and an MLA since 2015.
However, common enemy BJP forced the AAP and Congress together in the Lok Sabha polls, with the two parties also reaching an agreement in Haryana. However, in that state too, the Assembly elections saw the two parties fall apart as the state Congress insisted on going alone.
The AAP, it is believed, could pay back in kind in Delhi. In fact, sources in the party insisted that its decision against an alliance with the Congress was final. On why the issue had become a talking point again, an AAP leader said: “The speculation gained traction Tuesday because of a meeting between NCP leader Sharad Pawar and Kejriwal. The meeting was essentially about the leadership of the INDIA bloc,” an AAP leader said.
But that is not good news for the Congress either as the Maharashtra Assembly poll debacle for the party, on top of its Haryana loss and poor show in Jammu and Kashmir, has triggered rumblings within the INDIA bloc over leadership. While not overtly stated, the Congress as the largest party of the bloc is considered the leader of the group.
Plus, Wednesday’s cancelled event underlines the impression of a Congress flailing in Delhi, even as the AAP and BJP campaigns have picked up steam.
Delhi Congress leaders, however, insisted that things were on track and the first list of candidates would be out within the next 10 days. A Delhi PCC leader claimed the AAP would “come under pressure” after the Congress list. “We will announce names in seats where the AAP has not named its candidates so far.”
The AAP has announced names for 31 seats already, dropping 16 sitting MLAs in the process.
The first Congress list is expected to include names such as Sandeep Dikshit, former MP and the son of Delhi’s longest-serving CM Sheila Dikshit; five-time MLA Haroon Yousuf; Congress Mahila Wing chief Alka Lamba; and PCC chief Devender Yadav. Another name doing the rounds is Mumtaz Patel, the daughter of late Congress Rajya Sabha MP Ahmed Patel.
All of them have been active during the Dilli Nyay Yatra.
