Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi on Monday said that the party would contest the 2027 elections in Goa and Gujarat alone without opting for an alliance with Congress.
The former Delhi chief minister was on a day-long visit to the coastal state to inaugurate the party’s office in Margao.
Talking to reporters, Atishi said, “We are getting ready to contest the elections (Goa and Gujarat) on our own. Till now, there are no talks of an alliance.”
She said that the people of Goa voted the BJP to power in 2022, but at the same time, the Congress won 11 seats, and 8 of its MLAs later joined the saffron party.
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The Congress is the main opposition party with only three MLAs, and AAP has two legislators, she said.
Atishi said, “When the two AAP candidates won the 2022 elections, there were rumours that they would not survive in the party even for two months. But they are still with the party because they have not come to make money from politics.”
Asked if the AAP is not interested in an alliance with like-minded parties, she said. “When eight out of 11 MLAs join the BJP, what is like-minded? The AAP has shown that our two MLAs got elected and are still standing with the party. The BJP also tried to lure our MLAs.”
“We are not interested in politics where winning elections and making money is the sole aim. Our interest in politics is to deliver for the people,” she said.
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Speaking about the party’s loss in the Delhi assembly polls, Atishi said that the question is not what will happen to the AAP but what will happen to the people of Delhi.
“BJP has already announced that they will close 250 Mohalla clinics. They have already announced that they will stop free medicine,” she said.
She said party leader Arvind Kejriwal had warned that if AAP loses, power cuts will start, the quality of education will again become bad in government schools, and this is already happening.
“Systematically, the works of the AAP government were stopped. If you look at the Delhi elections, from manipulation to misuse of machinery and intimidation of voters, they tried everything. Delhi has never seen this kind of election. But despite all this, there was only a 2 per cent difference between BJP and AAP,” she said.
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Atishi alleged that the BJP has not fulfilled its election promise of providing ₹2,500 to the women of Delhi.
“The prime minister had assured that on March 8, on Women’s Day, all women will get the first instalment in their bank account. Forget about getting the instalment, the registration for the scheme has even not started,” she claimed.
“It goes to show that BJP has no intention of delivering on the promises they made,” she said.