The talks of alliance between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi for the coming Lok Sabha elections is learnt to be stuck over differences with regard to the tie-up extending to the neighbouring state of Haryana.
The AAP is learnt to be insisting on an alliance in Haryana for a tie-up to be stitched up in Delhi. It is learnt that Arvind Kejriwal's party has even suggested to the Congress that it will leave as many seats for the national party in Delhi as the latter gives it in Haryana.
However, according to sources in the Congress, the party is not interested in an alliance with the AAP in Haryana since the latter has tied up there with Dushyant Chautala's Jannayak Janata Party. It is also learnt that the Congress is indulging in tough bargaining with the AAP in Delhi, insisting on a 3:3:1 seat sharing arrangement, in which the two parties contest on three seats each, and one seat is left for a mutually agreeable independent candidate.
The AAP, meanwhile, on Monday came out strongly in response to the statement made on Sunday by Randeep Surjewala, who is the head of the AICC's communications department and a prominent leader in Haryana, ruling out any alliance with the AAP in Haryana or Punjab.
AAP leader Gopal Rai, who is in charge of party affairs in Delhi, remarked, “I want to ask Surjewalaji publicly if he wants a repeat of what happened in the bye-election in Jind.” He was referring to Surjewala's defeat in the recent bye-election in Jind, where the BJP emerged victorious.
“Surjewalaji was himself a candidate in Jind, and he ended up at number three. The people of Haryana had indicated that if the AAP, the JJP and Surjewala would have contested together, the BJP would not have won in Jind. If such an alliance is formed in Haryana, the BJP will lose in all ten seats,” Rai said.
He said that the AAP is keen on forming a mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in states where it has a presence, which include Delhi, Punjab, Goa, Haryana and Chandigarh. “We are keen that there should be an alliance as we feel that there are 35 such seats where the BJP can be defeated if the opposition comes together,” he said.
Rai accused the Congress of being too self-centred to have a national vision and realise the importance of having alliances in place to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP.
“The Congress says that in Punjab, its chief minister Amarinder Singh will not listen to an alliance with the AAP. They say they have a government in Punjab and that they are strong there.
In Haryana, they say we will lose but we will not get into any alliance. This shows that the party is too self-centred to have a national vision,” he said.
To a question of whether the alliance in Delhi cannot happen if the Congress does not agree to a seat-sharing in Punjab and Haryana, Rai said, “If they are capable of winning in Punjab, we are capable of defeating the BJP in Delhi.”