With Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal declaring that he will contest all 14 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab and Chandigarh, the Chandigarh Congress on Saturday said their alliance was only for mayoral polls.
Kejriwal, who was addressing a gathering at Khanna, said, “In the next 10-15 days, AAP will declare its candidates for all 14 seats.” He also urged the electorate to ensure that AAP swept all 14 seats with a majority.
The terms of the alliance for the mayoral polls in Chandigarh were that the mayoral candidate was to be from AAP, while the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor were to be given to Congress councillors. However, the Chandigarh mayoral election was marred by controversy as opposition parties accused the BJP of foul play and accused presiding officer Anil Masih of ballot tampering. The opposition alleged that Masih had marked eight ballot papers with a pen, rendering them invalid, to ensure the BJP’s victory, following which the matter reached the apex court.
Four-time Congress MP Pawan Bansal said, “Whether there will be an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party in Chandigarh or not will be decided by the Congress high command. Who will get the INC ticket will also be decided by the party high command. As far as the Chandigarh Congress is concerned, we are fully prepared to defeat the BJP in next parliamentary election from Chandigarh, irrespective of whether we have an alliance with AAP.
{{/usCountry}}Four-time Congress MP Pawan Bansal said, “Whether there will be an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party in Chandigarh or not will be decided by the Congress high command. Who will get the INC ticket will also be decided by the party high command. As far as the Chandigarh Congress is concerned, we are fully prepared to defeat the BJP in next parliamentary election from Chandigarh, irrespective of whether we have an alliance with AAP.
{{/usCountry}}Chandigarh Congress chief, HS Lucky, said, “Our alliance with AAP is only for mayoral elections, but if they want to defeat BJP, they should come with us. It is decided that Congress will contest from Chandigarh, and six people have already applied for the ticket,” he said.
Sunny Ahluwalia, who is in-charge of the Chandigarh AAP, said, “We will contest Chandigarh polls as mayoral elections are entirely different from Lok Sabha polls. We will soon be announcing our candidate from Chandigarh.”
In the 2014 parliamentary election, BJP’s Kirron Kher won the elections with 1.91 lakh votes (42.20%), Congress candidate Pawan Kumar Bansal received 1.21 lakh votes (26.84%), and AAP candidate Gul Panag received 1.08 lakh votes (23.97%). In 2019, Kher,won again with 2.31 lakh votes (50.64%), Congress candidate Pawan Kumar Bansal received 1.84 lakh votes (40.35%), and AAP candidate Harmohan Dhawan received only 13,781 votes (3.82%).