Cong leader says party will contest all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. AAP hits back

Congress leader Alka Lamba said the party had decided to contest all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.

Updated on: Aug 16, 2023, 18:34:17 IST

By HT News Desk | Written by Aryan Prakash

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The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday hit out at the Congress after its leader said the party will contest on all seven seats in Delhi in the next year's Lok Sabha election.

“We have been given orders contest on all 7 (Lok Sabha) seats in Delhi", Congress leader Alka Lamba told news agency PTI.

“The meeting lasted for four hours and was attended by 40 leaders who put forth their opinion. The talks focused on strengthening the Congress in Delhi", she added, referring to the meeting convened by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge in the capital.

Responding to Lamba's claims, AAP chief national spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar, said,"If Congress has already decided to not form an alliance with us, then it is of no use for us to attend the next 'INDIA' alliance meeting. Our top leadership will decide whether or not we'll attend the next meeting".

Delhi minister Saurabh Bhardwaj said,"Our central leadership will decide this...Our political affairs committee and INDIA parties will sit together and discuss this (poll alliance)".

AAP leader Somnath Bharti said,"Everyone should realise that we should keep our ambitions aside and think about the country and Constitution".

The Congress and AAP had been at loggerheads recently over the Centre's Delhi Services Bill. The AAP had demanded Congress to clear its stand on the ordinance as a condition to attend the I.N.D.I.A alliance meeting. Later, the Congress backed AAP over the services bill in parliament, but could not stop the bill from being passed and get presidential assent.

Cong-AAP failed to reunite in 2019

During the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Congress-AAP talks had fallen through with both parties blaming each other for not having alliance for 18 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. While the Congress had hit out at AAP's leadership, Kejriwal's party had accused Congress of wasting time in the name of discussion.

“The sole reason for us to go for an alliance with the Congress was to defeat the Modi-Shah pair in the election and not to fight over which party contests how many seats in these 18 Lok Sabha constituencies. But the Congress backtracked from the last agreed seat-sharing arrangement for Haryana", then Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had said.

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