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No I.N.D.I.A in Punjab? AAP minister rules out partnership with Congress in state
“We will never forge any alliance with the Congress in Punjab,” state tourism minister Anmol Gagan Mann asserted during a media interaction.
The Aam Aadmi Party ‘will not ally’ with the Congress in Punjab, AAP leader and state minister Anmol Gagan Mann asserted on Wednesday, with her statement coming a day after leaders of the Congress' Punjab unit opposed any kind of alliance with the ruling party for the state's 13 Lok Sabha seats.
“This (AAP joining the opposition I.N.D.I.A bloc) is the party leadership's call at the national level. But we will never forge any alliance with the Congress in Punjab. Things could be very different at the national level as all the parties have come together to save the country from the BJP. However, at the state level, the AAP will not go with the Congress. We will not tolerate any seat sharing with the Congress in Punjab,” Mann said during a media interaction.
The Congress holds eight Lok Sabha seats in the border state, while the Aam Aadmi Party has one. Two each are held by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
BJP national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill, a former Congressman, mocked the grand old party and the AAP in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
While their top leaders have come together under the I.N.D.I.A umbrella, the Delhi and Punjab units of the AAP and Congress are strongly against any local association; in both Delhi (7 Lok Sabha segments) and Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party ousted the Congress from power. The BJP, governing nationally since 2014, won all 7 Delhi seats in the 2014 and 2019 general elections.
Meanwhile, additional factors contributing to the AAP-Congress conflict include Delhi chief minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal's past statements against Congress leaders, the AAP presenting itself as an alternative in states where there is a bipolar Congress-BJP contest, and the desire to see their respective leaders (Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi) as the prime ministerial candidate of the I.N.D.I.A bloc.
To be sure, Kejriwal and Gandhi's names have been put forward either by leaders who have not participated in formal discussions among the I.N.D.I.A constituents, or by party spokespersons. The 28-party coalition has, till now, refrained from naming a PM candidate.
