INDIA allies AAP, Cong diverge on seat-sharing

A day ahead of the first meeting of the coordination and steering committee of the INDIA bloc, voices from the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress struck dissonant notes. Any success of the opposition alliance in taking on the BJP-led NDA hinges on the success of seat-sharing between the members in various states, say observers.

On Tuesday, after a meeting with AAP Haryana office bearers in the party headquarters, its Rajya Sabha member and national general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak said, “Vidhan Sabha elections will be held in Haryana soon. Haryana has a lot of energy and people want change. We will fight the Vidhan Sabha elections alone and on all seats.”

The same night, former Haryana chief minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that his party is capable of winning on its own and will fight on all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, meanwhile, kicked off the party’s Lok Sabha campaign along with Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann from Amritsar. Kejriwal is on a three-day tour to Punjab in what is being seen as a soft launch of the party’s parliamentary poll campaign. On the ground in Punjab, both AAP and Congress have declared that they don’t need the other and will fight elections on their own. “We will talk with everyone. All these decisions in AAP are taken by the Political Affairs Committee. Whatever decision is taken by the Political Affairs Committee and the consensus built in the coordination committee will show the road ahead for seat-sharing,” said AAP Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha when asked about the contradictions at various levels.

With inputs from News18

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