New Delhi: With no final seat-sharing arrangements in sight, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has thrown the gauntlet to the Congress in Delhi and announced that it is ready to offer one seat though it does not “deserve a single seat on merit”, while the grand old party has said that it is “energised” to fight on all seven seats in the national capital.
The offer comes just days after the AAP announced that it would go solo and fight on all 13 seats in Punjab.
Addressing a press conference after the party’s political affairs committee meeting on Tuesday (February 13), AAP MP and national general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak said that its one-seat offer to the Congress comes in the interest of “alliance dharma”.
“There have been two official meetings between the Congress and AAP on January 8 and January 12. The talks happened in a good atmosphere on all issues, but there were no results. After these two official meetings, there has been no meeting in the last month,” said Pathak.
He continued: “It has been a month waiting for the next meeting which would take talks forward. We were told that the Congress’s [Bharat Jodo Nyay] Yatra is going on and there will be a delay. We kept waiting and we met senior Congress leaders during this, but even they had no idea, no clarity about the next meeting.
“Under these circumstances, if your objective is to win elections, it will become very difficult to do so. I am sitting here with a heavy heart and this would not have been necessary if talks had taken place.”
Pathak said that going by the Congress’s performance in previous elections, it does not deserve even a single seat.
“Congress has zero seats in the Lok Sabha and zero seats in the Delhi assembly. In the MCD [Municipal Corporation of Delhi] elections last year, Congress won nine wards out of 250. If you see on a merit basis and on the basis of these statistics, the Congress does not deserve even one seat.
“But only data is not important. It is important to keep in mind the alliance dharma [and so] we offer them one seat,” he said.
Pathak said that the party is not announcing candidates for Delhi in the hope that talks with the Congress will resume and results are arrived at soon.
“If there are still no results, then the six seats that we are aiming for, we will announce candidates for those seats as well in the coming days,” he said.
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“Ready to fight on all seven seats”
Speaking to The Wire, Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely said that the Delhi unit is “ready and energised” to fight on all seven seats in the capital.
“Seats are not decided through media channels and press conferences,” he said.
“The Congress already has a committee under Mukul Wasnik that is looking at seat-sharing arrangements. As far as the Congress is concerned, we are the only party in the capital, compared to both the AAP and BJP, that has conducted discussions of its workers on all seven parliamentary seats. Of the seven seats, in five we have already held big public meetings.
“The Congress is the most prepared of all parties and our workers are ready to fight elections. We were second on five out of the seven seats in the last elections. Because the Congress is the biggest party in the INDIA alliance and is committed to the alliance. The Delhi unit will abide by the committee’s decision.
“But the Congress worker is ready and energised to fight on all seven seats in Delhi.”
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won all seven seats in Delhi.
Facing criticism from its allies for delaying seat-sharing talks, the Congress’s national leadership said that a final decision will be taken soon.
A meeting was held at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence in New Delhi on Monday evening to finalise seats.
On Tuesday, Congress MP and general secretary media in-charge Jairam Ramesh admitted to a delay in seat-sharing talks.
“I admit that there has been a slight delay. But this is a difficult task because we are contesting against a few parties at the state level,” he said at a press conference on the sidelines of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh.
“The INDIA alliance is for the Lok Sabha 2024 elections. In Delhi, we are fighting against the AAP and in Punjab [as well]. But we are united at the national level to fight against the BJP.
“Resolving these matters is taking a little time. I agree that this should have been done earlier, but there have been some difficulties. There are no issues with the DMK, NCP, Shiv Sena and Samajwadi Party. The difficulty is in West Bengal and Punjab. In our organisation, people want to contest [more seats] and so do the AAP and TMC.
“In a few days, seat sharing will be given its final form,” he said.
