New Delhi: Shazia Ilmi says she is not running for office in Delhi. Amid reports that she would be the BJP's candidate against her former boss, Arvind Kejriwal, Ms Ilmi tweeted last night, "I am not contesting from New Delhi or elsewhere, calm down folks."

Ms Ilmi was, till May 2014, a senior leader of Mr Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party or AAP, which he founded in 2012. In 2013, she contested the Delhi state election but lost to a BJP candidate. A few months later, she lost the parliamentary seat of Ghaziabad near Delhi to the BJP's candidate and former Army Chief General VK Singh. She then quit AAP, alleging that Mr Kejriwal and his aides had little interest in democratic leadership.

Though she has not joined the BJP yet, Ms Ilmi has made public appearances with BJP leaders and sources say she will address election rallies on behalf of the party.

Mr Kejriwal, when asked by reporters about a possible electoral face-off with Ms Ilmi, said yesterday, "She is a citizen of this country and is free to contest from anywhere she wants."

But later, in a swipe at her, he re-tweeted a post from Ms Ilmi in 2013 in which she had declared, 'Hypocrisy, thy name is BJP'.