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Lok Sabha Elections 2019: AAP calls off alliance talks with Congress
Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh said the party had officially opted out of an alliance with the Congress for the impending elections. He added that the AAP will contest the Lok Sabha polls on its own.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday announced that alliance talks with the Congress for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections have been called off after the latter refused to share seats in Haryana, Punjab or Goa.
“AAP has officially opted out of an alliance with the Congress for the impending elections. We will contest the Lok Sabha polls on our own. This message has been conveyed to the Congress now,” senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh told reporters.
There was no word from the Congress on the alliance, talks for which have blown hot and cold over the past weeks.
During the day, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel called on Delhi unit chief Sheila Dikshit, who has always been opposed to the alliance, at her residence.
A Congress functionary familiar with the development said Patel asked the former Delhi chief minister to wait for two days before going ahead with Plan B in case the alliance with the AAP did not work out.
“Nobody has rung me up yet. I won’t be able to comment till I get to hear from party high command,” Dikshit said when asked about the meeting.
Singh, who has been speaking to leaders in the Congress and other opposition parties to forge an alliance in Delhi and other states over the past six months, said the offer made by the grand old party was “impractical and one that would favour” the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“AAP was ready to offer three seats to Congress in Delhi where it does not even have a single MP or MLA. But, the Congress did not reciprocate,” he said.
“In Punjab, we have four MPs and 20 MLAs, yet they did not agree to give even a single seat to AAP for the Lok Sabha election. In Haryana, the Congress has just one seat, and yet refused to give us a single seat there,” the AAP leader added.
Congress leaders had a slightly different version of the story to tell. According to them, Delhi chief minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal demanded three seats from the Congress in both Punjab and Haryana in lieu of a 4-3 seat-sharing pact in Delhi. The AAP offered a 5-2 split to the Congress in case the deal did not extend to the other states.
Another offer by AAP, according to the Congress leaders, was to make Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) part of the broad alliance in Haryana. The party demanded five of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana – three for the JJP and two for AAP.
The Congress leaders, who asked not to be identified, said that the Congress was not in favour of an alliance in Punjab and was willing to offer AAP and JJP one seat each in Haryana.
AAP leaders admitted that Haryana may have been the last straw. They added that the Congress refused seats to the AAP even in Chandigarh and Goa, where AAP had won nearly 1.5 lakh votes and 6% votes respectively.
The AAP has consistently maintained that any alliance has to span both Delhi and Haryana.
“Now AAP will see if an alliance with JJP in Haryana works out,” Sanjay Singh said.
AAP leader Gopal Rai said that while the Congress’ position on Punjab was still understandable, “disagreeing on Haryana even after the Jind by-poll results where the Congress was in the third position is unacceptable. The country will not forgive the Congress for refusing this alliance.”
Questioning the intention of the Congress, Singh and Rai said the Congress is only dividing the anti-BJP votes. “Be it in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal or Kerala, the Congress is fielding candidates where the opposition is already strong. This will only help the BJP win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections,” Rai said.
(With inputs from Vatsala Shrangi)
