Congress – AAP Talks for Alliance in Haryana, Mehbooba Mufti’s No to Tie with BJP in J&K

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Sept 3: The Congress central leadership is learnt to have shown interest in forging an electoral alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the coming state Assembly elections in Haryana but a final outcome will largely depend on the local leadership who are believed to be far from being enthusiastic in tying up with the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s party.

The Congress on Tuesday said it was in talks with AAP for an alliance in Haryana but nothing has been finalised yet. Earlier, the AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh had welcomed reports claiming Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has shown interest in the possibility of an alliance with the AAP in Haryana where polling is scheduled to be held on October 5.

There were several reports claiming that Mr Gandhi, in a meeting of Congress’ Central Election Committee (CEC) on Monday expressed interest about the possibility of alliance with AAP for Assembly polls in Haryana. Asked about such a possibility, the AICC general secretary in-charge of state Deepak Babaria said, “We are in talks with the Aam Aadmi Party, but nothing has been finalised yet. As soon as something is finalised, we will inform you.”

Responding to another question, Mr Babaria said, “We have to defeat the BJP and not allow votes to be divided.” His remarks came after a screening committee meeting of the party ahead of the CEC meeting. On whether the Congress will field Vinesh Phogat in the upcoming Haryana Elections, Babaria said, “You will get a clarity by tomorrow.”

“Today, a meeting was held for Haryana by the Central Election Committee. A list of 49 names was presented by the state’s screening committee, out of which 34 have been approved and 15 are pending,” Babaria said. The AAP’s Mr Singh also said defeating the BJP was a priority of all the Opposition parties and added any decision regarding alliance would be taken with the approval of AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal. “Defeating the BJP and its politics of hatred and politics against people, farmers and youth is a priority for all of us,” Mr Singh said.

Mr 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 approval of Kejriwal,” said the senior AAP leader.

Delhi Minister Atishi said the decision will only be taken after Mr Kejriwal was released. “Rahul Gandhi has sought opinion from Congress leaders and only they can answer. We have got to know about it from 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.

The Congress leaders in Haryana, however, have rejected the possibility of any alliance with AAP in the state. Recently, senior Congress leader in Haryana, Kumari Selja ruled out the possibility of an alliance with AAP for the assembly polls, saying her party is strong in the state and will fight the elections on its own.

The former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had also earlier said there had been no talks on an alliance between the two parties. “The alliance we had was at the national level. We have not spoken to them. Here the fight is between BJP and Congress,” he said. In the Lok Sabha election earlier this year, the Congress managed to win five seats in Haryana — a big improvement from 2019 when the BJP won the state’s all 10 seats. The AAP, however, scored zero in this general election in the state.

But after Rahul Gandhi sought the opinions of the party’s Haryana leaders, Mr Hooda is learnt to have agreed to spare 3-4 seats for AAP candidates in the election to the 90-seat House. Rahul Gandhi, it is learnt, sought a report from party leaders on the feasibility of an alliance with AAP. The state leadership of the Congress, sources said, rejected the idea, but the high command asked them to relook at the ground situation. The high command, the sources said, is also considering the Delhi elections due next year and whether the Congress can tie-up with AAP for the capital contest.

Mr Gandhi is now the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and this general election has denied the BJP a majority in the House. Against this backdrop, a big INDIA bloc win in Haryana will be another setback to the ruling party. The Congress leadership would be looking at strengthening the Opposition bloc and acting as the big brother in the INDIA bloc, putting pressure on BJP inside and outside Parliament. For a Haryana victory, it is critical to prevent division of votes. Hence, the Congress may be looking to forge an alliance, provided the state leadership plays ball.

The Congress and AAP had tied up for the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana and the Chandigarh parliamentary seat. While the Congress won five seats in Haryana and the Chandigarh seat too, AAP did not benefit much from the alliance. Shortly after the poll results, a section of AAP’s Haryana leaders blamed the Congress for the defeat of its candidate Sushil Gupta in Haryana’s Kurukshetra. Against this backdrop, any alliance talk between AAP and Congress for the upcoming election is likely to see hard bargaining from both sides.

Meanwhile, in Jammu and Kashmir, the Union Territory also going to the polls with Haryana, the former chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday ruled out any tie-up with the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir, while asserting that government formation after the assembly polls would not be possible without the inclusion of her party. Hitting out at the National Conference (NC), she claimed the party wants to contest elections just for the sake of government formation.

“They have been doing so since 1947. They do not have any aim other than that. They form alliances just for the sake of government formation, for ministerial berths,” she said addressing workers at the party headquarters here. The PDP chief said her party wanted to contest elections for an agenda, but asserted that no government formation after the assembly polls would be possible without her party.

“We formed a government with only 16 MLAs (in 2002). God willing, this time also, no government will be formed without (the inclusion) of the PDP,” she added. However, she said the PDP’s focus is more on implementing its agenda and less on government formation.

Mehbooba, whose party formed the coalition government in 2015 with the BJP, ruled out an alliance with the saffron party after the polls. The party had joined hands with the BJP for the resolution of the Kashmir issue. Today, there seems to be no scope for that as the BJP has undone all the efforts in that direction, she added.