LS polls: No alliance with Cong, AAP to contest all seats in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana

Ending months of speculation, the AAP on Friday ruled out the possibility of any alliance with Congress for Lok Sabha polls, and added it will field candidates on all parliamentary constituencies in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana.

Senior AAP leader and party's Delhi unit convener Gopal Rai said the decision came in the wake of the recent statements of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit, opposing an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party.

"In the interest of the country, we were ready to drink the poison of Congress, but the statements show that the Congress is still seeped in its arrogance. The AAP will contest all Lok Sabha seats in the three states on its own," Rai said at a press conference.

Dikshit refused to comment on the development.

"I do not have to react on what he said. It's his opinion," she said.

Rai said AAP in collaboration with "like-minded" parties in the country, will defeat the BJP in Delhi and get a new government installed at the Centre.

He said the "vision" of an alliance with Congress came into being on suggestions of leaders like Mamata Banerjee, M K Stalin, Chandrababu Naidu and Farooq Abdullah.

"Like-minded leaders like Farooq Abdullah, M K Stalin, Chandrababu Naidu, Mamata Banerjee among others stressed that despite disagreements with Congress, we (AAP) should fight the elections together in the interest of the country," he said.

The AAP, despite objections of its Delhi and Punjab units, was ready to go with Congress to end the "dictatorship of Modi-Shah combine" and to save the Constitution, he said.

"The way Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh issued statement that AAP has no takers in Punjab and Sheila Dikshit said that Congress is a national party and it can not ally with a small party like AAP, made it clear that Congress kept its arrogance above the interest of the country."