New Delhi: Amidst challenges faced by the INDIA bloc, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have resolved their differences and reached a seat-sharing agreement for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Chandigarh and Goa.
During a press conference in New Delhi, AAP’s Saurabh Bharadwaj, Atishi, Sandeep Pathak, along with Congress’s Mukul Wasnik, Deepak Babaria, and Arvinder Singh Lovely, announced a four-three seat-sharing formula in Delhi, with AAP contesting four seats and Congress three.
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AAP will vie for the South Delhi, New Delhi, West Delhi, and Northwest Delhi seats, while Congress will focus on the East, Northeast Delhi, and Chandni Chowk seats. Currently, all seven seats in Delhi are held by BJP MLAs with over 50% of the vote share.
A senior leader from the Congress had earlier disclosed that the agreement was solidified after the AAP accepted the Congress’ proposal to contest one Lok Sabha seat of its preference along with another suggested by the Congress.
In Haryana, Congress will contest nine seats, leaving Kurukshetra to AAP. In Gujarat, AAP will contest from Bhavnagar and Bharuch. Congress will also contest from Chandigarh and two seats in Goa.
However, in Punjab, both parties will contest independently, maintaining their stance against aligning with each other. In Assam, AAP has already named three candidates.
This agreement follows the recent seat-sharing deal between Congress and Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, with Congress contesting 17 seats and Samajwadi Party taking the remaining 63 seats along with other INDIA alliance parties.
According to the seat-sharing pact in Uttar Pradesh, the constituencies that the Congress will contest from are Amethi, Kanpur Shahar, Fatehpur Sikri, Bansgaon, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Mahahrajganj, Varanasi, Amroha, Jhansi, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Sitapur, Barabanki, Deoria, and Rae Bareli.
In West Bengal, tensions persist as the Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee opts to go solo, while Congress continues discussions to secure a deal amidst the disagreement.
