Delhi polls: Trinamool, SP to campaign for AAP; Congress left alone

With several INDIA bloc parties backing the Aam Aadmi Party for the February 5 Assembly elections in Delhi, Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party leaders are set to campaign for the Arvind Kejriwal-led outfit, leaving aside the Congress, the largest constituent of the opposition bloc. Formed ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the INDIA bloc includes the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Samajwadi Party (SP) as its key constituents, among others.

Some other member of the bloc, including the Nationalist Congress Party (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT), have also extended their support to AAP for the Delhi polls.

A source told PTI that actor-politician and TMC MP from Asansol, Shatrughan Sinha, will canvass for AAP in at least three constituencies on February 1-2.


These include former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's constituency New Delhi, Chief Minister Atishi's Kalkaji, and Jangpura, where the party has fielded its senior leader Manish Sisodia.

Sinha, who hails from Bihar, could mobilise Delhi's Purvanchali voters, a term that refers to primarily Bhojpuri-speaking migrants from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh.

The Purvanchalis form an influential vote-bank in the capital.

The source added that "one or two more" TMC leaders may join the AAP campaign in Delhi.

The Samajwadi Party, which played a major role in pushing the BJP back in Uttar Pradesh in last year's general elections, will also campaign for AAP.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, along with his party MPs, will campaign for the ruling party candidates ahead of the elections, AAP said on Tuesday.

While Yadav will join Kejriwal for a roadshow in Rithala on January 30, several other SP MPs, including Iqra Hasan from Kairana, will join AAP in its campaign trail.

Though Congress is a key constituent of the INDIA bloc of which SP is also a crucial member, the Akhilesh Yadav-led party will only campaign for AAP, which is locked in a direct contest with Congress and BJP in Delhi.

The move reflects further alienation of the Congress within the opposition bloc it led during last year's Lok Sabha polls.

The AAP and Congress had unsuccessfully contested four and three seats, respectively, in last year's general elections under a seat-sharing pact in Delhi with BJP sweeping all the seven seats.

Fissures appeared in the opposition alliance last year when several parties in it backed TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to head the grouping led by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.