After a series of setbacks, the INDIA alliance has something to cheer with regard to stitching up seat sharing arrangements for the coming Lok Sabha elections. A day after the seat sharing arrangement between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh was announced, the principal opposition party is learnt to have finalised a tie-up with the Aam Aadmi Party for the seats in Delhi and beyond.
According to sources, an announcement of the seat sharing deal between the Congress and the AAP will be made anytime. It is learnt that the AAP will contest four seats in Delhi, while the Congress three. The AAP is expected to contest from South Delhi, West Delhi, New Delhi and Northwest Delhi. The Congress is likely to contest from East Delhi, Northeast Delhi and Chandni Chowk.
It is learnt that as part of the understanding the two parties have arrived at, the Congress has agreed to give up its claim on Bharuch in Gujarat, which used to be the Lok Sabha seat of late party leader Ahmed Patel. The Congress has also agreed to let the AAP contest from Bhavnagar in Gujarat. The AAP had even before the seat sharing talks began, declared the candidature of party MLA Chaitra Vasava from Bharuch. The Congress was earlier reluctant to give up Bharuch, claiming an emotional connect with the seat since it was in the past represented by Patel. Amongst the contenders in the Congress for Bharuch was Patel's daughter Mumtaz who has been working in the constituency.
According to sources, the AAP will get to contest one seat out of the ten in Haryana and one out of the 14 in Assam as part of the seat sharing deal. The AAP had announced three Lok Sabha candidates from Assam.
The AAP, it is learnt, will give up its claim on South Goa constituency from where it had already declared a candidate. The Congress has a sitting MP in the constituency. Chandigarh seat, it is learnt, will have a Congress candidate as part of the alliance.
As per sources in the Congress, the alliance discussions in Bihar are also in the final stages, and the seat sharing arrangement amongst the INDIA members would be announced before March 3, when the alliance leaders are scheduled to hold a joint rally in Patna.
The AAP, meanwhile, today claimed that the ruling BJP has threatened to arrest Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal if the AAP gets into an alliance with the Congress. Delhi Minister Atishi, addressing a press conference, claimed that the ruling BJP at the centre has through various individuals conveyed to Kejriwal that if the AAP-Congress alliance is formalised, the chief minister would receive a notice from the Central Bureau of Investigation either on Saturday or Monday, and that in the following one or two days, he would be arrested by the CBI or the Enforcement Directorate.