New Delhi: The much-awaited seat-sharing talks between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for Delhi and Punjab that began on Monday remained inconclusive. The seat-sharing talks held between the five-member Congress national alliance panel, including Mukul Wasnik, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel, Salman Khurshid and Mohan Prakash and ministers Atishi Marlena, Saurabh Bharadwaj and senior leader Sandeep Pathak.
The two parties reportedly agreed on how to cooperate on various parliamentary seats, discussed some preliminary issues and agreed to meet again over the next few days to firm up seat-sharing. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann could not attend the meeting as they are campaigning in Gujarat. Similarly, Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha is abroad. It may be recalled that these three leaders attended the INDIA alliance meetings in the past and would most probably have a role in seat-sharing talks, said Congress insiders. “We are together and will defeat the BJP,” Wasnik said after the meeting.
The seat-sharing talks took place at a time when the Congress high command was open to a pre-poll pact with the AAP to strengthen the INDIA alliance nationally, but the grand old party’s units in Delhi and Punjab, ruled by Arvind Kejriwal’s party, are opposed to any such arrangement, said party insiders. In both the states, the Congress feels that the AAP has taken away its traditional vote share and the respective state governments target the grand old party’s leaders. Another reason why the seat-sharing finalisation is likely to take a bit longer is that the newly-appointed AICC in-charge of Punjab Devender Yadav is set to hold elaborate feedback sessions with state leaders, eight sitting MPs and Lok Sabha ticket aspirants for three days from January 9 to 11.
“These are elaborate meetings with senior state leaders, former Lok Sabha members, sitting Lok Sabha members, former MLAs, sitting MLAs, block presidents, district presidents, State Executive Committee members, workers and all frontal organisations to assess organisational strength and preparations for the parliamentary polls,” AICC secretary in-charge of Punjab Chetan Chauhan told ETV Bharat.
In Delhi, too, similar meetings to assess organisational strength and preparedness for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls have been held by state unit chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, who also attended the Monday meeting. “We are conducting a drive to register workers at the booth level to revive the party. Our Lok Sabha review is over,” Lovely told ETV Bharat.
Punjab has 13 Lok Sabha seats while Delhi has seven. In 2019, the Congress won eight parliamentary seats in Punjab, the BJP two, SAD two and AAP one. Therefore, the Congress leaders are pressing for at least eight seats if not more given AAP’s majority in the state assembly. In Delhi, the BJP had won all the seven seats in 2019 and the Congress was second on four seats. Therefore, some local leaders have been pressing for at least four seats while the AAP is willing to give three seats citing the regional party’s majority in the state Assembly where the Congress has no representation.
On December 26, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and former chief Rahul Gandhi reviewed the political situation in Punjab with all the senior state and central leaders to chalk out a roadmap for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls. “See, the high command has to take a final call on seat-sharing with AAP. We have conveyed the sentiments of the local leaders to them. But, we will abide by any decision taken by the high command alliance. We are prepared to do anything to defeat the BJP,” said AICC functionary Chauhan.
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