Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 9: Even as both the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said the talks were still on between the two parties for an electoral alliance in Haryana, both the parties have gone ahead with releasing the list of their candidates to build pressure on the other to accept the alliance at their terms.
While the Congress has already released the list of over 40 candidates in two instalments for the 90-member Haryana state Assembly, the AAP on Monday released its first list of 20 candidates putting up even its state vice-president Anurag Dhanda to contest from Kalayat seat. The 20 candidates named by the AAP include 11 seats where the Congress has already set up its candidates.
Besides releasing its first list, the AAP state president Sushil Gupta also threatened that the party would put up candidates for all the 90 seats if the alliance with the Congress was not finalised by Monday evening. He said the AAP could not wait indefinitely for the Congress response as the nominations for the Haryana elections would have to be filed by September 12.
While the state units of both the Congress and the AAP were less than keen for joining hands, both claiming upper hand in the state, the talks began only after the senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, advised his party to try for an understanding with the AAP to avoid division of anti-BJP votes in a bid to oust the saffron party trying to return to power in the state for the third consecutive term. But the talks has countered roadblocks over seat-sharing. The AAP has demanded at least 10 seats, but the Congress is ready to concede five to seven seats to the AAP.
“The AAP has made its decision.. we have gone ahead and announced candidates for 20 seats (with a) further list to come as well. We are confident about our outcome on all 90 seats,” Mr Gupta said. “We waited (for the alliance) because the organisation (the Congress) is strong in every Assembly and that strong organisation wanted us to contest the election. We showed our patience and, after that, we released our list…” Mr Gupta told reporters, “We were a partner in INDIA alliance (but) at national level.”
The two parties had reached an ‘in-principle’ deal to re-form the alliance that stopped the BJP from sweeping Haryana’s 10 Lok Sabha seats for a second straight election. But the Congress is unwilling to leave too many seats for the AAP pointing out the party had failed to win the seat allotted to it – Kurukshetra, won by the BJP – in the Lok Sabha election. The Congress contested the other nine and won five.
For this election, sources said, the AAP wanted seats in the home turf of Congress leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, which he was expecting to allot to loyalists. Mr Hooda had said last month that he had not spoken to the AAP’s state leaders since the general election, and that the alliance was not specific to the state, where “the fight is between the BJP and Congress.”
The AAP’s Raghav Chadha then spoke of “desire, wish, and hope for an alliance” from both parties, but warned a deal may not happen “if there is no win-win situation…” The AAP’s poor show in the Lok Sabha election left the Congress with the upper hand in seat-share talks, a position underlined by several state leaders who expressed concern.
The Congress’ position has also been strengthened by the signing of wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, who have been leading protests against sex assault-accused former wrestling body chief Brij Bhushan Singh. Ms Phogat will contest the Julana seat.
There have also been murmurs of discontent within the AAP’s ranks, with three-time Malviya Nagar MLA Somnath Bharti pointing out the Congress-Aam Aadmi alliance was routed 0-7 in the Lok Sabha election in the national capital. The AAP must now “evaluate the effectiveness” of a similar alliance for Haryana, Mr Bharti, who also claimed a lack of support from the Congress during campaigning, said.
The AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh said, “Nominations have to be made by the 12th, there is very little time left and our priority is to remove the Bharatiya Janata Party. Today, a list of 20 candidates has been released, I heartily congratulate all of them on behalf of Arvind Kejriwal and we are committed to fulfill the 5 guarantees. More lists will be released soon. In Haryana, the Aam Aadmi Party will fight the elections strongly…”
On the question of AAP-Congress alliance in Haryana, Congress MP Deepender Hooda said, “Even our list has been released. Talks are underway. The issue is of 10 years of misgovernance by the BJP government.”
