The BJP rebel Yashwant Sinha will not be contesting on the AAP ticket from the New Delhi seat in the upcoming Lok-Sabha elections due next year but would rather campaign against the Modi Government across the country, said Delhi AAP convener Gopal Rai on Sunday.

Halting talks of rebel BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha being roped in to contest Lok Sabha polls on its tickets, the AAP Sunday announced Brijesh Goyal and Rajpal  Solanki as party’s in-charges of New Delhi and West Delhi Parliamentary seats for the election. The Sinhas, who are bitter critics of the Modi government, have grown close to the Aam Aadmi Party, extending support to the party on various issues and sharing platforms with its leaders, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on many occasions.

“There were talks with Yashwant Sinha for him to contest from New Delhi seat but he has expressed willingness to campaign against the Modi government across the country. There were no talks about Shatrughan Sinha being the party candidate,” Delhi AAP convener Gopal Rai said at a press briefing.

The party had already announced its in-charges for five of the seven parliamentary constituencies in Delhi. The candidature of all the seven in-charges will be formalised later, Rai said. Party sources said the in-charges will be ultimately the candidates on the respective seats. However, they also said “last minute” changes could take place as some of the in-charges were “too new faces” without much political experience.

The announcement of the in-charges on the remaining two seats in Delhi halted, for the time being, speculation that the AAP might ally with the Congress for the 2019 election.