New Delhi: The INDIA bloc partners Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Saturday announced that the two will put up a joint fight in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, clinching a seat sharing pact in Delhi, Haryana and Gujarat.
In Delhi, the Congress will field candidates in three seats — Chandni Chowk, northeast Delhi and northwest — leaving the remaining four seats of east, south, west, and New Delhi for the AAP.
The AAP, in turn, will contest Bharuch and Bhavnagar seats in Gujarat, as well as Kurukshetra in Haryana, as part of the alliance. The party will also not field candidates in Goa’s two constituencies, and the sole seat in Chandigarh to prevent any split in Opposition votes.
The announcement came after rounds of meetings between leaders of the Congress and the AAP, which first unseated the Congress from power in Delhi in 2013, followed by Punjab in 2022.
In Gujarat, too, the AAP made inroads in the last assembly election, winning five seats with a vote share of 14 percent, while the Congress registered a slide, settling with 17 seats and 27 percent votes. In Goa, the AAP won two seats in the 2022 state polls.
Congress leader Mukul Wasnik, who heads the party’s alliance committee, made the announcement at a press conference in Delhi that was also attended by AAP leaders Sandeep Pathak, Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj. Immediately after the announcement though, there was a note of dissonance from the Congress over the Bharuch seat going to AAP.
“Deeply apologize to Our district cadre for not being able to secure the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat in alliance. I share your disappointment. Together, we will regroup to make @INCIndia stronger. We won’t let @ahmedpatel 45 years of Legacy go in vain. #bharuchkibeti (sic),” Mumtaz Patel, daughter of late Congress leader and Gandhi family confidant Ahmed Patel, posted on X.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won all seven seats in Delhi. Gujarat’s Bharuch, which was held by Ahmed Patel between 1977 and 1989, and Bhavnagar constituencies also went to the BJP’s kitty, as did Kurukshetra in Haryana.
In Delhi, the Congress had finished second in five seats in 2019, while the AAP was the runner up in two seats — south and northwest — as the two parties fought separately after a breakdown in alliance talks over the Congress’ refusal to part with seats in states beyond Delhi.
This time around, the Congress was more accommodating with the AAP, which has substantially expanded its footprint over the past five years. Even then, the talks hit many bumps, with the AAP making its displeasure public many times, including earlier this month when it claimed it was “tired” of “no progress” towards reaching a deal.
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The Bharuch seat
The Bharuch Lok Sabha seat emerged as a major irritant as Ahmed Patel’s children — daughter Mumtaz and son Faisal — put pressure on the Congress high command to not part with it. In fact, the announcement of seat sharing had to be postponed by a day as the Patel family kept lobbying for the seat, which has been with the BJP since 1989.
“If the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat is allotted to the AAP party under the alliance in the next Lok Sabha elections, neither I nor the conscientious workers of the Congress party will support the candidate of the AAP party,” Faisal posted on X on Friday.
He also created a flutter with another post, where he thanked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for “listening” to him. “By supporting us, I and my fellow Bharuch Congress workers have been honored. I promise you that I will live up to your faith by winning the Bharuch Lok Sabha,” he posted.
AAP sources said following Faisal’s posts, the Congress sent a message, saying it was “trying to sort out some issues and requested some more time”. The AAP, meanwhile, insisted that its Dediapada MLA Chaitar Vasava, already announced as the party’s candidate from Bharuch, was primed to snatch the seat from the BJP due to his “mass appeal, particularly among the tribals who have a large presence in the area”.
Earlier this week, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) also stitched an alliance in Uttar Pradesh. While the SP and other INDIA allies will contest 63 seats in the state, the Congress will field candidates in 17.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)