Even as the Opposition camp renews its efforts to forge a rainbow alliance against BJP ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections, AAP has said that the party does not support ‘jod-tod ki rajneeti’ (engineered mandates) as people look at coalition governments with mistrust.

Speaking to ET, AAP national general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak said, “AAP’s stand on an Opposition alliance is clear – we have an alliance only with the people. Whenever there is a talk of ‘mili-juli’ sarkar (coalition government), people don’t trust it. They feel it means instability. People don’t like it. We respect this sentiment. We don’t believe in ‘jod-tod ki rajneeti’.”

The statement comes at a time when there is a sense of urgency within the Opposition camp over forming an alliance to take on BJP in the 2024 elections. Last week, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar had nudged Congress to take a quick decision on an Opposition alliance. At the same time, Telangana CM and BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao has also started cobbling up a non-Congress and non-BJP alliance.

AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal has been warming up to KCR, as Rao is popularly called. Last month, Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann had participated in BRS’ first rally in Khammam. But AAP, which is in power in Delhi and Punjab, is careful about joining an alliance.

“We believe that all parties should fight to their respective strengths in their states and deliver their promises to the people,” said Pathak. On the question of forging an anti-BJP alliance, Pathak said, “We are not anti any party, we don’t focus on defeating any party. Instead, we focus on winning and serving the people.”