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Lok Sabha Elections 2019: AAP rejects Congress’s Haryana seat offer
On Wednesday, Congress’s Haryana in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad and AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh met to discuss the polls in Haryana.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said on Wednesday it had rejected a Congress deal for sharing seats in Haryana in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, even as the uncertainty over over an alliance in Delhi between the two parties lingers.
Haryana has 10 Lok Sabha seats, all of which will go to polls on May 12, the same day as Delhi.
The AAP has already entered into a seat-sharing agreement with the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) in Haryana — three for AAP and the rest going to its ally.
On Wednesday, Congress’s Haryana in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad and AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh met to discuss the polls in Haryana. A senior Congress functionaries said on condition of anonymity that the party on Wednesday offered a 7-2-1 deal — the Congress taking seven seats, leaving two for the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) and one for the AAP.
The AAP, however, insisted on a 6-3-1 formula, asking the Congress to give up another seat for the JJP. Senior AAP functionaries said this is where the deal remained stuck, and an alliance in Delhi would not happen unless both parties reach a consensus over the formula in Haryana.
“The AAP will fight Delhi alone and with the JJP in Haryana. We tried a lot. I held discussions with Azad ji, with Congress leader Ahmed Patel and PC Chacko, but it doesn’t look like the Congress wants to stop the BJP from winning in this elections. They have not agreed to our 6:3:1 seat sharing pact in Haryana, despite the AAP agreeing to give the Congress three seats in Delhi,” Singh said.
Singh acknowledged that Azad, during their meeting, had sought a list of the seats the AAP was seeking for itself and the JJP in Haryana. “We provided the names of the seats accordingly,” he said without specifying what these seats were.
However, Singh’s comments came even after Azad and Congress veteran Bhupinder Singh Hooda told reporters on separate occasions on Wednesday that the party had held no talks with AAP on Haryana.
“As far as Haryana is concerned, there is no such discussion as of now. The Congress is capable to fight alone in the state and there is no need for an alliance. But ours is a national party. So if a decision is taken at a national level then its impact will trickle down to the state as well,” said Hooda, who has been a two-time chief minister of Haryana.
Despite these thorny issues and the fact that deadline for filing nominations is just days away, leaders of both the AAP and the Congress maintained that an alliance is still possible.
On the seats that AAP wished to contest, its Delhi convener Gopal Rai said, “It is fine with us if we are given either Gurugram or Karnal to contest. But, there is some disagreement over the Sonepat seat. The JJP is asking for it, but Congress wants to keep it to itself, mostly on the insistence of Hooda.”
Rai said the AAP agreed to the Congress’s seat sharing pact of 4-3 (four for AAP, three for Congress) in Delhi after which the talks had progressed to the Haryana situation on Wednesday. If the Haryana deal does not work out, the AAP has offered Congress a 5-2 formula for Delhi, which has not been acceptable to the Congress in the rounds of discussions the parties have held so far.
The last date of filing nominations in Delhi and Haryana is April 23 (Tuesday), which means the Congress and the AAP have less than a week to seal an alliance. Delhi and Haryana go to polls on May 12. So far, only the AAP has declared its candidates for all seven parliamentary constituencies in Delhi. In Haryana, the Congress has declared its candidates for six of the 10 seats.
