GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 24th Feb. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress have come to a seat-sharing agreement for several states, including Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Goa, and Chandigarh.
The agreement in Delhi sees the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP contesting four out of the seven seats, including West Delhi, South Delhi, East Delhi, and New Delhi. The remaining three constituencies – North East Delhi, North West Delhi, and Chandni Chowk – will be contested by the Congress.
This announcement comes in the wake of the BJP’s sweep of all seven seats in Delhi during the 2019 elections. The joint press conference held by the AAP and Congress follows weeks after the opposition’s INDIA bloc secured their first electoral victory in the Chandigarh mayoral polls.
Expanding beyond Delhi, AAP will field candidates in Bharuch and Bhavnagar in Gujarat, as well as Kurukshetra in Haryana. Meanwhile, the Congress will contest both seats in Goa and the sole constituency in Chandigarh.
The seat-sharing negotiations have been challenging for the INDIA bloc, with regional parties seeking a greater share of seats, buoyed by the Congress’s recent electoral setbacks in key states.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has already struck a deal with Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, securing 17 seats. However, a deadlock remains in Maharashtra with the Congress and the Shiv Sena yet to decide on eight seats. Similarly, West Bengal presents a challenge for the Congress, with the Trinamool Congress asserting its intention to contest all 42 seats. Sources suggest that Trinamool is reluctant to offer more than two seats to the Congress, which has been pushing for at least five seats in the state.
The INDIA bloc, formed last year to counter the BJP, has faced setbacks with the departure of key members like Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United and Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtra Lok Dal, both of which have aligned with the BJP.
