india

Updated: Dec 10, 2013 17:17 IST

Two days after receiving the fractured mandate of the national capital in the Delhi assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) elected its chief ministerial candidate Harsh Vardhan as its legislative leader on Tuesday.

The BJP emerged the winner with 31 seats but fell short of a majority in the 70-seat assembly.

However, the party again made it clear that it would not form an alliance with the year-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which came a close second after votes were counted on Sunday and pushed the Congress to a poor third place.

Vardhan said the BJP’s aim was to make Delhi corruption-free.

“If we can make Delhi polio-free, then we can certainly make Delhi corruption-free,” he said.

Asked is the BJP was willing to go for an alliance with the AAP, state party unit president Vijay Goel said the party was not seeking any alliance.

“We haven’t heard from them (AAP) officially, and we are not power-hungry to form a government at any cost. We don’t want to get into any alliance,” he said.

On Monday night, AAP member Prashant Bhushan had said that the party might consider supporting the BJP in Delhi if the latter gave it “in writing that it will pass the Janlokpal Bill by December 29.”

On Tuesday, however, Bhushan retracted the statement, saying there was no such possibility.

Meanwhile, party founder Arvind Kejriwal has consistently said that AAP will not form an alliance either with the Congress or with the BJP.

Vardhan also maintained his stance that he would not stake a claim to form a government in Delhi as his party was short of a clear majority.

He said the party would rather sit in the opposition than indulge in “horse-trading”.