The Delhi BJP and Congress on Thursday attacked the AAP for not giving tickets to its own leaders and said that the party is not confident on the performance of its MLAs amid the ruling party announcing the names of 11 candidates for the upcoming state assembly polls slated to be held early next year.

The AAP announced its first list for the Assembly elections likely to be held early next year on Thursday, replacing three sitting MLAs and fielding six leaders who recently switched sides from rival parties.

Claiming that the list reflects a lack of confidence within the ruling party, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva said, "The first list doesn't name the chief minister, Cabinet ministers or the other prominent leaders who work closely with the government. If AAP wants to win with 'pawns', this list shows its likely fate in Delhi." He also claimed that internal rebellion in AAP would soon become evident to the voters of Delhi.

Calling AAP a party in "decline", senior BJP legislator and Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta, said in a post on X, "The Aam Aadmi Party is now on the verge of extinction. Today, AAP has a dearth of its own workers and has lost the trust of the public."

As per the list, AAP has fielded Brahm Singh Tanwar from Chhatarpur, Anil Jha from Kirari and B B Tyagi from Laxmi Nagar. All three recently quit the BJP to join AAP.

Similarly, former Congress leader Choudhary Zubair Ahmed has been fielded from Seelampur, while ex-MLAs Veer Singh Dhingan and Somesh Shokeen have been given tickets from Seemapuri and Matiala, respectively. The trio recently joined AAP from the Congress.

Reacting the development, Delhi Congress President Devender Yadav said that the desperation of AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal was clearly evident from the list where three of the 11 candidates were recent Congress discards, and tickets have been given to them by replacing sitting AAP MLAs of Seelampur, Seemapuri and Matiala.

 “These changes of candidates by AAP were a clear admission that most of its MLAs were corrupt and did not do any work during their tenure,” he said.

Now with AAP taking the lead in releasing its first list of candidates, the political battle in poll-bound Delhi has officially commenced.