Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Saurabh Bharadwaj on Saturday asserted that his party is not a formal member of the INDIA bloc, but stressed that it would continue to raise all the issues of the opposition.
Notably, Bharadwaj's remark comes days ahead of the beginning of the monsoon session of the Parliament in which the INDIA bloc is planning to corner the BJP-led NDA government over multiple issues, including US President Donald Trump's statement on Operation Sindoor.
"We raise all issues of the Opposition... But we are not in the INDIA Alliance," Bharadwaj, who is also AAP's Delhi unit chief, told news agency ANI. "When we contested the Lok Sabha elections, we did seat-sharing. After that, the Delhi elections took place, wherein we did not do any seat-sharing. As of now, we raise all issues of the Opposition...We coordinate with all Opposition parties, be it TMC, SP or other parties. But we are not in the INDIA Alliance."
AAP and Congress had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections together, but only for Delhi and had fielded four and three candidates, respectively, for the seven seats in the national capital. But for Punjab, the two parties had decided to contest separately.
Later, there were talks that the two parties could form an alliance for the Delhi assembly elections, but they had failed to reach a consensus over seat-sharing.
Bharadwaj's remark comes days after AAP MP Sanjay reiterated the same and said that his party is not "officially" a member of the INDIA bloc and the alliance was only for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
"We have clarified our position that the INDIA alliance was there till the Lok Sabha elections. As far as the Parliament is concerned, we have always been opposing all the wrong policies of the government. Currently, the issue for us is the way the homes and shops of people of Bihar, UP and Purvanchal are being bulldozed and destroyed. This is the issue we will raise in Parliament in the context of Delhi," Singh had told ANI earlier this week.
