No INDIA in Punjab? State chief says Congress may contest all Lok Sabha seats
The Congress had won eight Lok Sabha seats in Punjab in 2019, whereas the Aam Aadmi Party won only a single seat.
Chandigarh: Highlighting internal contradictions within the Opposition's INDIA alliance, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Tuesday said his party will contest all 13 Lok Sabha seats in the border state, as he has received no instructions from the high command about fighting the 2024 general elections in any alliance. The Aam Aadmi Party, which wrested Punjab from the Congress in 2022, had shared similar sentiments in September.
The Congress had won eight Lok Sabha seats in Punjab in 2019, whereas the Aam Aadmi Party won only a single seat. However, the political equations in the state changed with the AAP scoring a landslide victory in Punjab and Congress stalwart Amarinder Singh joining the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Asked if the Congress would contest the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab in alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party, he said, “Till now, there is a message from the party high command that you make preparations for contesting all 13 seats."
“I want to say that the high command which means (Congress president Mallikarjun) Kharge sahib, if any message comes then it will come to me being the PPCC president. Such a message that you fight elections jointly or enter any alliance has not been given till now,” Warring told PTI.
INDIA alliance is scheduled to meet later this month to discuss the contentious seat sharing agreements in states. The parties will deliberate on what shape the alliance would take in states where its constituents are bitter political rivals.
The AAP and the Congress are political rivals in Delhi and Punjab. AAP wrested power from the Congress in both these states and contributed significantly in the latter's drubbing in 2014 with its anti-corruption campaigns against the then UPA government at the Centre.
The Aam Aadmi Party has also been giving similar indications. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal recently said their party would win all 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
In September, Punjab AAP leader and state minister Anmol Gagan Mann had said her party would not contest elections in alliance with the Congress.
"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,” she had said.