Abhishek Banerjee said on Thursday that the outcome of the Delhi elections would have remained largely unchanged even if the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had fought the polls in alliance with the Congress.

The national general secretary of the Trinamul Congress claimed that the fall of Arvind Kejriwal’s government was largely because of the AAP’s failure to counter the BJP’s “false narrative” that his regime had done little in the past five years.

Abhishek’s assessment of the defeat is different from what Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee had said a few days ago. She had said the Congress’s rigidity on the seat-sharing had helped the BJP defeat the AAP.

While holding both the AAP and the Congress responsible for the BJP’s Delhi victory, Mamata had ruled out any alliance with the Congress in Bengal for the 2026 Assembly elections.

Speaking to reporters after visiting a Sevashray camp at Satgachia, South 24-Parganas, on Thursday, Abhishek said electoral tie-ups were an internal matter of parties, but ultimately, the people’s support was what mattered most.

“You fight alone or jointly, but what truly matters is whether the people stand with you. In Bengal, we have been clear that we are part of the INDIA alliance for the larger national interest. However, if the Congress does not wish to engage in any seat-sharing arrangement, we will contest the elections on our strength and terms, just as we did before and won,” Abhishek said.

Unlike the chief minister, the Diamond Harbour MP pointed out the AAP’s failure to defend itself in the face of the BJP’s propaganda.

“The BJP has mastered the art of misleading people. They successfully convinced voters that Kejriwal ruled for five years but delivered little. AAP, to a large extent, remained unsuccessful in countering this falsehood. It failed to make people understand that the BJP, through an ordinance, stripped an elected government of its powers and did not allow it to function,” he said.

Drawing parallels with Bengal, Abhishek accused the BJP of attempting a similar strategy before the Lok Sabha elections by falsely claiming to have allocated funds for various welfare schemes.

“We challenged them to release a white paper with details of these allocations. Only then was their lie exposed, and the BJP ultimately failed to produce the document,” Abhishek said, highlighting how Trinamool had countered the Centre’s strategy.

Further analysing the AAP’s shortcomings, Abhishek said he did not believe that an AAP-Congress alliance would have helped defeat the BJP’s narrative.

“So, I don’t believe a proper alliance between the AAP and the Congress would have significantly altered the election outcome, except possibly on four or five seats,” he said.

The TMC leader emphasised that AAP’s defeat showcased the importance of proper communication with the electorate to fight the BJP’s “false claims”.

“(In Bengal), we made people understand our stance, encouraged them to write letters to the Centre, and even took them to Delhi, where they faced attacks. We showed them that it was not the state government that withheld their money, but the Centre that refused to release funds for MGNREGA wages. The Centre still has not released the funds. As a result, people delivered a fitting reply to the BJP in the ballot box. AAP should take lessons from this defeat and work to strengthen its position,” he added.