A day after being routed in the Lok Sabha contest, Delhi's ruling AAP on Friday said there is no alternative to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi and said the party will win the Assembly elections due in February without any alliance.
Speaking to the media, AAP leader Gopal Rai said the Aam Aadmi Party will contest the Assembly elections on its own, after a failed bid to sew up a tie-up with the Congress for the Lok Sabha battle in the national capital.
"There will be no alliance for the Assembly battle. We will contest on our own," he said.
The vote share of the AAP in the 2019 general elections shrunk to 18 per cent, from 32.90 per cent in 2014.
In the 2013 Assembly polls, when Kejriwal formed a 49-day government with Congress support, the AAP had secured 29.49 per cent of votes. In the 2015 Assembly polls, this zoomed to 54.34 per cent and helped the AAP bag 67 of the 70 Assembly seats.
Rai said the AAP scored low now as the Lok Sabha elections were highly polarized.
"People voted for a Prime Minister's face. People were shown that it was (Narendra) Modi for the PM post and if not Modi it was Rahul Gandhi. AAP was not offering any PM face. Even those who voted for BJP and Congress have told us that they will vote for Kejriwal in the Assembly polls and there is no alternative of Kejriwal in Delhi."
He said the AAP played up the issue of full statehood in the Lok Sabha elections but people did not vote on local issues. "People voted for the nation and national issues."
For introspection, the party had called a meeting of all office bearers, Lok Sabha candidates and MLAs on May 26.
"We contested the election as a team and everyone is equally responsible. There was nothing wrong with our campaign. It was better than that of the BJP and Congress."
Rai added that the party will now focus on its work in Delhi.
--IANS
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