While the BJP has long been AAP’s primary adversary in Delhi, the party on Monday turned its sights on the Congress, which has struggled electorally in the capital for nearly ten years. The tension, however, is rooted not in Delhi but in Punjab, the sole state where AAP currently holds power.
The row erupted following an interview with Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav, which was also shared on AAP’s social media. In the video, Yadav is heard saying that Congress contested the Delhi Assembly elections to defeat AAP, even if it indirectly benefited the BJP. “If AAP has to be defeated, it is necessary to defeat Manish Sisodia, Arvind Kejriwal… we have been somewhat successful in doing so,” Yadav said, outlining the party’s strategy.
When asked whether it was acceptable if the BJP won as a consequence of AAP’s defeat, Yadav reportedly said, “During the CEC [Central Election Committee] meeting, this was discussed with Mallikarjun Kharge ji and Rahul Gandhi ji, and we decided that we should go all out.”
Seizing on these remarks, AAP’s Delhi unit chief, Saurabh Bharadwaj, called it a “big revelation” at a press conference on Monday, criticising Congress’s senior leadership. Citing Election Commission data, AAP alleged that the Rs 44 crore raised by Congress was not aimed at securing its own victory but at “defeating AAP and helping the BJP.”
AAP also pointed to Congress’s decision to field senior leaders directly against AAP’s top leaders—Sandeep Dikshit against Kejriwal, Farhad Suri against Sisodia, and Alka Lamba against Atishi—as evidence of a targeted strategy. In a post-election image from the BJP government’s swearing-in ceremony in Delhi, Yadav was seen on stage alongside AAP’s rebel MP Swati Maliwal.
AAP’s Punjab poll in-charge and former Delhi deputy chief minister, Manish Sisodia, wrote on X, “Whatever Congress did during the Delhi assembly elections to make BJP win was clearly visible behind the scenes, but now Delhi Congress state president Devender Yadav himself has come on camera and admitted that it was true that Congress fought the elections in Delhi not to win, but to make BJP win.” Atishi added on X that the two parties “pretend to fight on the surface, but maintain friendship behind the scenes.”
The Congress rejected AAP’s accusations. Delhi Congress media cell chairman Anil Bhardwaj claimed Yadav’s remarks were selectively edited. He countered by accusing AAP of helping the BJP by splitting opposition votes in other states. “AAP fielded candidates in Goa, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, and Haryana with the sole intention of cutting into Congress’s support base,” Bhardwaj said. He added that AAP had built its rise in Delhi on unsubstantiated allegations against the late former CM Sheila Dikshit, while its current government faces multiple corruption charges. “Before blaming the Congress, AAP should first introspect,” he added.
In Delhi, the Congress has not won a single Assembly seat since 2015, nor sent an MP from the capital since 2009. In Punjab, however, it remains AAP’s main challenger, having finished a close second in the 2022 Assembly elections. With anti-incumbency sentiments growing against AAP’s Punjab government, Congress is positioned as the main alternative for voters. BJP’s vote share in Punjab was just six per cent in the 2022 elections.
AAP’s move to discredit Congress in Punjab by portraying it as aligned with the BJP underscores a broader strategy: to present Congress as an unreliable opposition force and position AAP as the only credible challenger to the BJP nationally. Punjab, where AAP currently governs, remains crucial for the party’s national ambitions following its Delhi poll setbacks.