NEW DELHI: Congress sources revealed ongoing discussions with AAP, but no clarity yet on the number of seats Congress may offer.
Ahead of the high-stakes assembly elections in Haryana, the alliance talks between Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have hit a roadblock over seat-sharing, as Haryana’s Congress unit is reluctant to accommodate AAP, which has no significant base in the state.
Sources within Congress told The Sunday Guardian that discussions have been taking place between the high command and AAP, but there has been no clarification on how many seats Congress is willing to offer to AAP.
The Haryana Assembly has 90 seats, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 40 seats, Congress 31 seats, and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) 10 seats in the previous election. AAP, however, failed to win any seats in the last assembly elections.Sources familiar with the matter revealed that AAP is pushing to contest on 9-10 seats, but Haryana’s Congress unit remains unwilling to allocate that many, citing AAP’s poor performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections.On Friday, Congress released its first list of 31 candidates for the Haryana elections, featuring prominent figures such as Olympians Phogat and Bajrang Punia.
These athletes, who led the wrestlers’ protest against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and BJP leader Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh last year, have now entered politics by joining Congress.The majority of candidates on the list are loyalists of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, with the remaining from the Kumari Selja camp. Sources indicate that Hooda’s camp opposes any alliance with AAP and prefers to contest the elections independently. However, Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and former Congress President, is reportedly keen on forming an alliance with AAP.Political analysts suggest that Rahul Gandhi’s interest in an alliance with AAP in Haryana is driven by prospects in the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, where Congress has significantly lost its support base.
In a setback for AAP, former Delhi cabinet minister Rajendra Pal Gautam, a prominent Dalit leader, joined Congress on Friday. This development raises questions about the viability of any alliance for next year’s Delhi elections.
A senior official from the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee told The Sunday Guardian that Congress plans to contest next year’s Delhi assembly elections independently, ruling out any possibility of a merger with AAP. The Haryana Assembly election is scheduled for October 5, with the deadline for candidate nominations on September 12.
It is worth noting that the Election Commission rescheduled the election date from October 1 to October 5 at the BJP’s request, citing the centuries-old festival of the community as a reason for the change.