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Haryana elections: Choice of seats, poll record likely factors behind failed pact talks between Congress, AAP
The number and choice of seats, AAP’s past poll record in the state, and pushback from senior leaders were among the key issues that led to failure of a poll pact between the Congress and the AAP for the Haryana assembly polls, according to people from both parties.
The number and choice of seats, AAP’s past poll record in the state, and pushback from senior leaders were among the key issues that led to failure of a poll pact between the Congress and the AAP for the Haryana assembly polls, according to people from both parties.
The Congress leadership told HT on Thursday that the party was keen for an alliance, but at some stage, AAP may have overestimated themselves. “We were ready to offer six seats. But they wanted more,” said a senior leader who asked not to be named. He added that the Congress had also pointed out to AAP its poll performance in the 2019 assembly polls and that the party came third — after the BJP and Congress — in most of the seats where in wanted to contest this time.
A dominant section of the Congress, too, was averse to any pact with AAP. While Congress leaders on Thursday admitted that the party was divided over the alliance, “it was never a factor in our talks with AAP”, he added.
AAP leaders, meanwhile, said they held several rounds of discussions with the Congress leaders to form an alliance so that the two constituents of the INDIA bloc can “uproot the BJP from Haryana.”
“We made all possible efforts to seal the alliance but the Congress underestimated us. We were demanding 10 seats including Gurugram, Faridabad, Panipat, Jind, Pehowa, Kalayat among but Congress did not agree to give us the seats we demanded. The Congress did not recognise the fact that we have worked hard in Haryana over the past few years and have strong organisational base in several pockets such as Jind, Kalayat, Pehowa, Panipat. We wanted the seats in areas where we have strong organisational base. The things did not work out as per our plans,” said an AAP leader on condition of anonymity.
In the recent months, Sunita Kejriwal and several AAP leaders including Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha held rallies, road shows and public meetings. These efforts have created a very positive atmosphere. We performed very well in Lok Sabha polls though we couldn’t win the Kurukshetra seat. In such a scenario, judging AAP just by its performance in the previous elections is not reasonable,” said a second leader.
The AAP has now announced candidates for all 90 seats in the state assembly.
