New Delhi: The INDIA front suffered another jolt Thursday with the AAP announcing its plan to field three candidates in Assam for the Lok Sabha election, saying that so far “nothing has come out” of its seat-sharing talks with the Congress, leaving it with “very little time” to prepare for the polls.
AAP general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak made the remarks while declaring the names of the candidates that the party plans to field from Assam’s Dibrugarh, Guwahati and Sonitpur parliamentary constituencies, which are currently held by the BJP, the state’s ruling party. The state altogether has 14 Lok Sabha seats.
“We are with the INDIA alliance. But seat-sharing talks have been going on for months now. We are tired. We need to contest polls to win. We cannot afford to waste time,” Pathak told a press conference.
Pathak added that while AAP remains hopeful about reaching a seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress in Delhi, it will go it alone in Punjab, making it clear that Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann’s decision has the endorsement of the party’s central leadership.
“We are a responsible and understanding partner of the INDIA alliance. For Punjab, the state units of Aam Aadmi Party and Congress had agreed that both the parties would contest elections separately in the state,” he said.
While Pathak maintained that the AAP would not withdraw its candidates in Assam even if a seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress was formalised later, AAP sources told ThePrint that talks, stretching past midnight, were held between the leaders of the two parties even Wednesday.
“One way of looking at it is that it is posturing on the AAP’s part to put pressure on the Congress at a time when there is a question mark on the future of the INDIA front. But we have been demanding that seat-sharing talks be wrapped up as early as possible. It should not come as a surprise to anyone, least of all the Congress,” an AAP functionary told ThePrint.
The seat-sharing talks between the two parties had broken down in a similar fashion ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, with the Congress refusing to have any deal with the AAP in states other than Delhi.
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal had then blamed Rahul Gandhi, who was the Congress president at the time, for the failure to forge an alliance.
The AAP’s demand to field candidates in Haryana, Gujarat and Assam — other than Delhi and Punjab, which it governs — as part of the INDIA alliance has once again emerged as a sticking point between the two parties, with the Congress opposing the proposal.
Kejriwal has already announced that AAP’s Gujarat MLA Chaitar Vasava will be the party’s candidate from the state’s Bharuch Lok Sabha seat.
On Thursday, Pathak claimed that “discussions have taken place on all the important states that are on the table” but “nothing came out of it”.
“If you want to win, time is important. You cannot waste time like this,” he said.
“When you enter an alliance, you contest to win, and time and strategy are of paramount importance. We are tired of talking. How long will we hold talks? After all, we need to work also. Everything should be expedited. The chances of winning will increase if it is expedited,” Pathak asserted.
The differences between the two parties have come to the fore nearly a month after Kejriwal met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at the latter’s residence in the presence of Gandhi.
The AAP’s posturing is the latest in the long line of worries hobbling the INDIA bloc as the Trinamool Congress has also declared its plan to go solo in the polls, while Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar, among the architects of the front established eight months ago, has exited it to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
There is also a growing buzz that the Rashtriya Lok Dal may join the NDA as well, with its president Jayant Chaudhary’s silence fuelling the speculation. The Congress’ seat-sharing talks with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh are also not going well.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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