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After Kurukshetra defeat, AAP’s Dhanda hits out at Congress
Dhanda, who is the senior state vice-president of AAP, accused Congress leaders of infighting that led to the defeat of Gupta in Kurukshetra and said despite campaigning by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala in Kaithal, the INDIA bloc failed to garner votes from the segment.
A day after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s Haryana president Sushil Gupta thanked Congress leaders and workers for their support in Kurukshetra during the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, his deputy Anurag Dhanda cornered their ally in the INDIA bloc on Friday.
Dhanda, who is the senior state vice-president of the party, accused Congress leaders of infighting that led to the defeat of Gupta in Kurukshetra and said despite campaigning by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala in Kaithal, the INDIA bloc failed to garner votes from the segment.
“It is not possible to believe that Surjewala, a national-level Congress leader in Kaithal, had lost during the last assembly elections by 500-700 votes. But it could not be a coincidence that despite the anti-BJP wave, the alliance lagged behind by 17,000 votes in Surjewala’s constituency, who led the campaign in Kaithal, and he could not even save his booth,” Dhanda said at a press conference in Kaithal.
On the other hand, the AAP leader said in Thanesar, former MLA Ashok Arora lost the last assembly elections by nearly 500 votes and the alliance lost in his constituency by 18,000 votes, which also cannot be a coincidence.
“There are Congress MLAs in Radaur and Ladwa and the alliance lost in the same assembly where there were Congress MLAs and strong leaders. Where there were no Congress leaders in Guhla Cheeka, Kalayat, Pehwa and Shahbad, the alliance registered victory. Either it can be accepted that Surjewala and Ashok Arora no longer have any political existence and people have completely rejected them. Our workers along with Congress worked hard on all the seats, due to which Congress won 5 seats. Congress workers are also disappointed that the manner in which these internal attacks took place has made them suffer the consequences,” he added.
The AAP leader said that the BJP, which had won 10 seats last time, was reduced to 5 seats this time and alliance could have defeated them badly on all 10 seats.
“The future of Haryana politics is Aam Aadmi Party as apart from BJP and Congress, it has emerged as the third force. In this election, all the candidates of the INLD got 1.74% i.e. 2.26 lakh votes in entire Haryana, JJP got 0.87% i.e. 1.13 lakh votes and BSP got 1.28% i.e. 1.65 lakh votes. If these three votes are added then it becomes 5.05 lakh votes, while AAP that contested only one seat, Kurukshetra got 5.13 lakh votes,” he added.
Dhanda also said that his party will contest on all 90 seats in the upcoming assembly polls, however, on Thursday, Gupta had said that the decision will be taken by his party high command.
“We will prepare on all seats, but the decision has to be taken by the national leaders of the party. We are no one to decide,” he added.
The AAP state president had also denied raising any objection on any leader of both the parties for his loss.
“I received over 5 lakh votes from electors of both the parties, though it was broom symbol. I believe that the coalition dharma was performed…I did not find any leader (of the Congress) who was not working hard,” Gupta had said.
