Chandigarh: Opposition's INDIA bloc faced yet another jolt on Wednesday after Aam Aadmi Party said it would not have any alliance with Congress in Punjab and would fight on all 13 Lok Sabha seats.
Punjab CM and AAP leader Bhagwant Mann during a press conference here said, "In Punjab, we will not do anything (alliance with Congress) like that, we have nothing with Congress in Punjab." AAP, Mann said, has shortlisted 40 candidates for the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the border state. "We are in the process of carrying out a survey before finalising the candidates," Mann said.
His remarks came shortly after Congress faced a setback in West Bengal when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that her party has decided to go alone in the state in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. "I had given them (Congress) a proposal (on seat sharing) but they refused it at the outset. Our party has now decided to go alone in Bengal," Banerjee said amid the seat-sharing tussle between the Congress and the TMC. The Bengal CM also asserted that she has not spoken to anyone in the Congress on the seat-sharing issue.
Quoting sources, PTI reported that the TMC's offer of two seats to the Congress based on its 2019 Lok Sabha election performance, triggered tension among them, as the arrangement was deemed insufficient. The CPI(M)-led Left Front, Congress, and the TMC are part of the 28-party INDIA bloc. The TMC boss also said the party will have no relationship with the Congress in the state.
