Chandigarh: Less than a week after Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann accompanied Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal to the INDIA bloc meet in Mumbai, the Punjab unit of the AAP has ruled out a pre-poll alliance with the state Congress for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Both the AAP and the Congress are part of the 28-member INDIA alliance of parties opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Addressing a press conference here Wednesday, state minister Anmol Gagan Maan said despite the AAP having joined hands with other opposition parties to take on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), there will be no pre-poll alliance with the Congress in Punjab for the general elections next year.
The AAP will contest all 13 parliamentary seats in the state on its own, she said, adding that this decision has been made and conveyed by CM Mann.
“There is no doubt about the fact that, in Punjab, the AAP will contest all 13 seats on its own. We will not have any alliance in Punjab with the Congress,” declared Maan, who is also the AAP MLA from Kharar.
Adding that the people of Punjab voted for the AAP and its policies, she told reporters, “They (voters in Punjab) follow Bhagwant Mann, who is offering a clean, corruption-free government that works for the people. We have been putting Congress leaders in jail for their corruption. How can we have a tie-up with the Congress here?”
Maan’s remarks marked a clear departure from the Punjab AAP’s earlier stance on the issue — conveyed by state Finance minister Harpal Cheema, who told reporters in Nabha Sunday that the party will ally with the Congress in Punjab for the parliamentary elections slated for next year.
“The INDIA alliance came into being to save India, its democracy and its Constitution. Mutual differences will have to be set aside to come together for a larger cause and our priority is to save the country,” Cheema had said.
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Punjab Congress divided on issue
On its part, the state unit of the Congress too maintained Wednesday that they were yet to receive any word from the high command on a pre-poll alliance or seat sharing arrangement with the AAP for the Lok Sabha polls.
Addressing a press conference Wednesday, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said that the party’s central leadership had merely asked the state unit to begin preparations to contest all 13 seats in Punjab.
“We are going by those instructions alone,” he said, adding that while there were no instructions yet from the party high command in this regard, the Punjab Congress had already conveyed its “feelings” about such an alliance.
Several party leaders had Tuesday, during the weekly meeting of the Punjab Congress in Chandigarh, opposed the idea of allying with AAP in the state. Among the reasons put forward by them for opposing the alliance was a spate of arrests of state Congress leaders by the vigilance bureau since the AAP trounced the Congress to form its first government in Punjab last year.
Later in the day, Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa, leader of the Opposition in the assembly, wrote on X that the Punjab Congress cadre “is in no mood to form an alliance with the AAP Punjab for the forthcoming general elections”. The AAP’s victory in the Punjab assembly election in 2022, he said, “was a political experiment that has failed terribly”.
Punjab Congress Cadre is in no mood to form an alliance with the @AAPPunjab for the forthcoming general elections. Even after getting hold of the power in the state for the past 18 months, the AAP is desperate to form an #alliance with the Congress. No Punjab Congress leader has…
— Partap Singh Bajwa (@Partap_Sbajwa) September 6, 2023
Former state minister Navjot Singh Sidhu is the lone voice in the Punjab Congress who has been speaking out in favour of such an alliance.
Referring to the formation of the INDIA alliance, Sidhu wrote on X (formerly Twitter) Wednesday that the party high command’s decision is “supreme” and was made keeping the “national interest” in mind.
“Petty perish (sic) pump politics loaded with selfish vested interests should be discarded for safeguarding our DEMOCRACY. Elections are not fought for the next election, they are fought for the next generation,” he wrote.
The decision of the party high command is supreme . It is for a greater cause,National interest has been kept paramount to honour the spirit of the constitution and to free the enchained institutions which draw their strength from constitutional values. Petty…
— Navjot Singh Sidhu (@sherryontopp) September 6, 2023
Asked about Sidhu’s remarks, Warring told reporters Wednesday that the Punjab Congress was in no way defying the party high command. “When no order has been issued by the high command regarding any alliance with AAP (in Punjab), where is the question of defying such orders?”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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