AAP out of I.N.D.I.A bloc in the border state, seat tussle persists in Delhi.
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday virtually ended the alliance with I.N.D.I.A bloc by declaring that his party will announce candidates for all 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab and the lone seat in Chandigarh.
Signalling that there will be no alliance with the Congress in the state, Kejriwal announced at a public rally, “The Lok Sabha elections will be held in two months… Punjab has 13 seats and Chandigarh has one. In the next 10-15 days, the AAP will announce its candidates for all 14 seats. I request you to give us your blessings like you did (during the Punjab Assembly election) two years ago, and ensure that the AAP sweeps all 14 seats.”
The AAP decision to pull out of the Opposition alliance in Punjab will add to the trouble that the bloc has landed in after losing hope of a joint fight with the TMC in West Bengal and losing JD(U) as an ally in Bihar.
“I am here to seek your blessing for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Ensure AAP’s victory on all 14 seats, vote for Jhadu, and sweep all 14 seats”, said Kejriwal at the rally.
“The Bhagwant Mann government has done such good work in less than two years, including giving free electricity. The Congress ruled (the state) for so many years in the past 75 years. If I ask you to tell me one good work the Congress has done, you will not be able to remember. If I ask you for one good thing that Akali Dal had done, you will not remember,” the AAP chief said.
It is speculated that the AAP may go solo in Delhi too, however, no concrete decision on seat-sharing has yet been taken. A party insider said that in Delhi, we are holding discussions on 4-3 formulae with AAP getting four seats and the Congress three.
However, there is a roadblock in this, as one Congress insider said we are demanding five seats in Delhi, on which we came in second position during the 2019 general elections, as we have better chances of challenging the BJP on those seats. “This is the biggest issue causing a delay in seat-sharing settlement in Delhi,” said a Delhi Congress leader.
Taking a dig at the I.N.D.I.A bloc’s unity in Delhi, BJP state president Virendra Sachdeva said in a press statement, “The public is not surprised by the breaking of ties between the AAP, which recently labelled the Chandigarh mayoral election as the murder of democracy, and its ally, the Congress, as the end of such oppositional relationships is inevitable.”
He added that “Arvind Kejriwal, who raised a hue and cry over the Chandigarh mayor election and the INDI alliance, has today announced to contest all 14 seats in Punjab and Chandigarh, bidding farewell to the INDI Alliance and ending hopes of winning some seats for the Congress.”