The Congress and AAP were engaged in seat-sharing talks for the Haryana Assembly polls with hard bargaining from both sides, even as the Congress' central election committee has cleared the names of candidates for 66 seats out of 90 till Tuesday.
While the Aam Aadmi Party is demanding 10 seats, the Congress is ready to give only seven seats, sources in AAP said.
They said senior party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha and Congress' KC Venugopal have already held two rounds of talks and are likely to meet again in a day or two.
"The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is demanding 10 seats. However, Congress is ready to give only seven out of the total of 90 seats. AAP has claimed one seat from each of the 10 Lok Sabha constituencies," said a source in the Arvind Kejriwal-led party.
After a meeting of the Congress Central Election Committee, AICC general secretary in-charge Deepak Babaria said the alliance talks were in a primitive stage and possibilities were being explored.
"We will inform you about the developments," he added, without elaborating.
"The CEC meeting of AICC was held today, in which proposals given by the Haryana screening committee were discussed.
"Out of 90 seats, 49 were discussed yesterday and today, the conclusions of the screening committee regarding the remaining 41 seats were put before the CEC... Earlier 34 seats (candidates) were finalised and today 32 out of 41 seats have been finalised," Babaria told reporters.
He said that tentatively by Thursday, the Congress would finalise its list.
Babaria said a sub-committee had been formed to review the pending seats. He asserted the panel was not formed for alliance talks.
Babaria said he, Ajay Maken, T S Singhdeo and one more person were part of the sub-committee.
On whether wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia could be fielded by the Congress in the polls, he said everything would become clear by Thursday.
Earlier in the day, AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh welcomed reports claiming Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has shown interest in the possibility of an alliance with AAP in Haryana, where polls will be held on October 5, and asserted that defeating the BJP is a priority of all the opposition parties.
He added any decision regarding an alliance will be taken with the approval of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal, who is currently in jail in excise policy-related cases.
There were several reports claiming that Gandhi, in a meeting of Congress' Central Election Committee (CEC) on Monday, expressed interest in the possibility of an alliance with AAP for assembly polls in Haryana.
"Defeating the BJP and its politics of hatred and politics against people, farmers and youth is a priority for all of us," Singh said.
Singh, however, said any official stand on the issue will be made by AAP's in-charge of Haryana affairs Sandeep Pathak and state president Sushil Gupta.
"Any final decision in this regard will be taken by our leaders associated with organisational and election-related works in Haryana, after the approval of Kejriwal," said the senior AAP leader.
Delhi minister Atishi said the decision will only be taken after Kejriwal is released.
"Rahul Gandhi has sought an opinion from Congress leaders and only they can answer. We have got to know about it from the media. As far as alliance goes, the decision will be taken after Arvind Kejriwal comes out," she told reporters on the sidelines of an event.
Several Congress leaders in Haryana, however, have earlier rejected the possibility of any alliance with AAP in the state.
Recently, senior Congress leader in Haryana Kumari Selja said her party is strong in the state and will fight the elections on its own.
The Congress and AAP, partners in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), had a seat adjustment for Lok Sabha polls in Delhi, Haryana and Gujarat.
In Haryana, AAP state president Gupta was the lone party candidate in the Lok Sabha polls in the state. He lost to BJP's Naveen Jindal.
Gupta recently asserted that AAP is ready to strongly contest on all the 90 assembly seats in Haryana on its own "with an alliance with the people of the state".
The Congress and AAP contested the Lok Sabha polls independently in Punjab.
