New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has entered into an alliance with the Congress in the Chandigarh mayoral polls set to take place Thursday, signalling their initial readiness to break bread even though state leaders of both parties so far are opposed to any alliance in the general elections.
Both parties are constituents of the Opposition’s 28-party INDIA alliance. The AAP has called the mayoral election the “first fight of INDIA alliance against the BJP” and a “curtain raiser” for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
AAP will contest the mayor’s post, while Congress is set to field joint candidates for the post of deputy mayor and senior deputy mayor. The BJP has held the Chandigarh mayor’s post for the past eight years.
Announcing the alliance in the national capital Tuesday, AAP MP Raghav Chadha said, “I am sure Bharatwasis will come together to make team INDIA win. After the election, the score will be INDIA-1, BJP-0.”
He added, “It is not an ordinary election… After INDIA’s clean sweep on the 18th… this will be the curtain raiser for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.”
Saying the election would set the tone for the 2024 fight of “INDIA vs BJP”, Chadha claimed it would give hope to people against this “tanashahi (dictatorial) government”.
Former Congress Chandigarh MP and former Union minister Pawan Bansal had said Monday that a national-level alliance had come together to strengthen democracy and that parties in Chandigarh decided that the alliance “should start from here”.
Currently in the house, AAP has 12 councillors and Congress 7. The BJP has 15 and MP Kiron Kher has voting rights. Shirumani Akali Dal also has one councilor. Together, AAP and Congress members outnumber BJP, which is the single largest party.
This development is also important at the local level because the Congress has preferred to abstain from voting in these elections over the last two years. This resulted in AAP losing the mayor’s post by one vote each time to the BJP.
“The people of Chandigarh gave a mandate to the Congress party to sit in the Opposition during the 2021 MC elections. Acting in accordance with the wishes of the voters of Chandigarh, the party will honestly but emphatically play the role of a constructive opposition in the MC House,” Congress had said at the time after a decision was taken following consultations with the “party high command”.
Meanwhile, Chadha said that conversations on seat-sharing for states were still ongoing, with both sides terming them as “cordial”. Chadha added that a decision to fight a state would be “strategic”.
During initial talks, AAP had demanded Lok Sabha seats in five states, including Goa, Haryana and Gujarat, apart from Punjab and Delhi, which the party rules.
Ironically, the AAP emerged as a political party from an anti-corruption movement against the Congress-led central government in 2012. The party then dislodged the Congress from power in Punjab and Delhi.
(Edited by Tiki Basu)