Cong, AAP seal deal on seat-sharing for LS polls

AAP and Congress announce seat-sharing pact for Lok Sabha elections. AAP to contest in 4 Delhi seats, Congress in 3. Alliances also in Haryana, Goa, Gujarat, and Chandigarh.

The Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress on Saturday announced their seat-sharing pact for this summer’s Lok Sabha elections, with the two key constituents of the opposition INDIA bloc disclosing a 4-3 division for the national capital’s seven constituencies between them.

Leaders of the Congress and AAP at a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

While the AAP will field candidates in New Delhi, West Delhi, South Delhi and East Delhi parliamentary constituencies, the Congress will contest on North East Delhi, North West, and Chandni Chowk seats.

Apart from Delhi, the two parties also announced their seat sharing pacts for Haryana, Goa, and Gujarat, along with the lone Lok Sabha seat in Chandigarh where the Congress has decided to field its candidate. The party did not strike an alliance in Punjab, where the AAP and Congress are arch-rivals.

“In the last few days, long discussions were held with AAP, following which AAP-Congress has finalised seat-sharing. We are happy that two important partners of the INDIA alliance will fight the election together,” Congress leader Mukul Wasnik, who led the discussions from his party, said at a joint press conference in the national capital.

“Even though we will be fielding candidates on three seats in Delhi, our workers and leaders will try to ensure that the INDIA alliance wins all seven seats,” he said.

A similar formula was proposed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was party chief at the time, ahead of the 2019 elections but the talks collapsed. The BJP won all seven seats in the Capital in the 2019 elections in a rout for the other two who together secured fewer than 50% of the votes polled.

Giving details about the agreement, Wasnik said that in Gujarat, the Congress will contest 24 seats and the AAP will contest two — Bharuch and Bhavnagar.

In Haryana, the Congress will contest nine of the 10 seats, with the AAP fielding its candidate from the Kurukshetra seat.

Both Lok Sabha seats in Goa and the one seat in Chandigarh will be contested by the Congress in alliance with the AAP, the Congress leader said.

In Punjab, where the AAP is in power in the state assembly and the Congress is the main opposition, the parties have decided to contest the 13 seats separately, AAP leader Sandeep Pathak said.

“Punjab has special situation, keeping that in mind it has been decided that both political parties will contest the election separately,” Wasnik added.

The pact is the first such alliance between the two parties that have often attacked each other, and the second significant agreement clinched by members of the beleaguered Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).

On Wednesday, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) announced their seat sharing pact for Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh after days of speculation.

“Seat-sharing talks for Lok Sabha polls have been going on with INDIA alliance partners. As you already know, two days ago the Congress finalised its alliance in UP with the Samajwadi Party and an announcement was made from Lucknow. The announcement of Samajwadi Party getting one seat (Khajuraho) in Madhya Pradesh was also made,” Wasnik said at Saturday’s press conference, which was also attended by Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely and Delhi Congress in-charge Deepak Babaria.

Senior AAP leaders Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj were also present.

“We will contest the election on different seats with separate symbols because we are separate political parties… In other states also the INDIA alliance partners will work together in coordination to make sure the maximum number of our candidates win the election,” said Wasnik.

“The INDIA alliance is ready to strongly fight the adverse challenges that have crept up in the country and the challenges that have come up against democracy and the constitution. The seat-sharing between AAP-Congress is a part of this,” he added.

“We firmly believe that the decision will be respected by all workers of the Congress and the AAP,” Wasnik said in response to a question on discontent in the party’s local unit on some seats like Bharuch.

Congress veteran late Ahmed Patel’s daughter Mumtaz Patel had expressed her intent to fight from the Bharuch seat and a section of the Congress workers also wanted her, but a senior party functionary involved in the negotiations had indicated that she will be accommodated in another position.

The AAP has already announced candidates for Bharuch (Gujarat MLA Chaitar Vasava) and Bhavnagar (Umesh Makwana) seats in Gujarat.

Following Saturday’s announcement, Mumtaz Patel said, “Deeply apologize to our district cadre for not being able to secure the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat in alliance. I share your disappointment. Together, we will regroup to make INC stronger. We won’t let Ahmed Patel’s 45 years of Legacy go in vain.”

Hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab Sandeep Pathak said his party has joined the alliance because for the AAP the country is more important.

“Today, the country is going through a tough time. The BJP is crushing all institutions one by one... opposition leaders are being put in jail through malpractices, farmers are being subjected to injustice, and people are facing inflation and unemployment. The country needs an honest and strong political alternative. Keeping all this in mind, leaving aside our political interests and putting the interest of the country first, we have joined the alliance. The country is important and party is secondary,” Pathak said.

The AAP leader said that the details of campaigning by different constituents of the opposition bloc are yet to be worked out.

“All our cadre came to politics for the country. They understand the current prevailing political situation,” Pathak said, dismissing speculation on resentment among AAP workers.

The sealing of the pact caps weeks of tense negotiations between the erstwhile rivals.

Both sides held their first formal discussion on January 8, when the AAP offered three seats in Delhi to the Congress, and demanded seats in Gujarat, Goa and Haryana. The Congress’s national alliance committee led by Wasnik told AAP representatives that the alliance panel’s mandate was to discuss only Delhi seats.

Eleven days later, Kejriwal met Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi at Kharge’s residence to give fresh momentum to the talks. The AAP later ruled out an alliance in Punjab, giving rise to speculation that the party will go solo in Delhi as well.

Speaking at the press conference, Lovely said that through the three Lok Sabha seats the Congress will be able to touch all segments of voters in the city. “These three seats together represent the whole of Delhi. In the last three months, we have held extensive interactions with the voters of Delhi who are very upset with the BJP and want to get rid of the BJP. They will vote for the INDIA alliance candidates and we will win all seven seats,” he said.

Reacting to the announcement, BJP leader Ramvir Singh Bhiduri said that there is a huge trust deficit between the Congress and the AAP, and they have come together only because of their fear of losing the elections.

“There is a serious trust crisis between the Congress and AAP, but despite that they are going to form an alliance is nothing but politics of opportunism,” he said.

With inputs from Saubhadra Chatterji