NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party has once again announced that it will not have any poll pact with Congress for the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi and will contest all seven parliamentary seats alone to defeat BJP. After making a similar announcement in January, AAP kept on trying to convince Congress for an alliance. Exactly a month after AAP’s first announcement of not having any truck with Congress, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal surprised all by stating at a public meeting: “We are tired of convincing Congress to form an alliance but they do not understand. BJP will lose all seven Lok Sabha seats if there is an alliance.”“This time we are completely serious about this,” Delhi convenor Gopal Rai said at a press conference on Tuesday when asked whether they will stick to this decision now. When reporters persisted, asking him how AAP will react if Congress comes up with a proposal for an alliance now, Rai said: “The time for ifs and buts is now over. We are now completely focused on our campaign for the polls.”Asked about a meeting between AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday, which sparked speculation that Congress was still considering an alliance with AAP, Rai said: “AAP is with the mahagathbandhan. We have decided not to have any poll pact with Congress. We will stand with the mahagathbandhan if it forms a government.” He added that frequent refusals by Congress (to AAP’s proposal for an alliance) was disturbing AAP workers leading to wastage of precious campaign time.CM ArvindKejriwal also said something similar after a public meeting on Tuesday: “No talks are going on between AAP and Congress. Congress has officially conveyed to us that there is no alliance.” He will hit the campaign trail after Holi for which an elaborate schedule has been drawn up. AAP has announced candidates for all seven seats and will contest the polls on the slogan of ‘Poorna rajya banao, jhadu ka button dabao’. It will be telling voters that Delhi will get full statehood if they vote for the party.Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit has already announced that her party will not have any alliance with AAP, but a recent survey conducted by the party in-charge of Delhi to feel the pulse of the grassroot level workers has kept speculation alive. A section of Delhi Congress leaders still favours an alliance with AAP because both parties share largely the same vote bank and a triangular fight could ensure a BJP win.AAP came into existence in 2012 opposing Congress and running an aggressive anti-corruption campaign against the party and the then Delhi chief minister, Sheila Dikshit. Congress was wiped out in the 2015 Delhi assembly elections when AAP won 67 of 70 seats.“It was only in the interest of the country that we wanted to have an alliance with Congress with which we have several differences,” Gopal Rai had said earlier. “The remarks of different Congress leaders has led AAP to conclude that it is least interested in protecting the country from the dictatorship of (Narendra) Modi and (Amit) Shah and more interested in upholding its inflated arrogance,” Rai said today.

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