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Lok Sabha Elections 2024 | Mann shuts alliance talks: AAP knows how to contest alone, win and form govt

Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring too said his party is gearing up to fight on all seats in the state.

Punjab AAP Mann in 2024 Lok Sabha electionsBhagwant Mann was speaking to reporters after launching a flight from Ludhiana to Hindon at Sahnewal airport.(Express File Photo)
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The Aam Aadmi Party knows how to contest elections alone, win them and form government, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann Wednesday said, hours after Cabinet Minister Anmol Gagan Maan opposed any electoral tie-up with the Congress for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“The question on alliance with Congress is nothing but hypothetical. AAP is the youngest national party. We have won Delhi thrice. We then won Punjab and got thumping majority with 92 seats. We then got 13 per cent votes in Gujarat too. We know how to contest alone, we know how to win and we also know how to form governments and run them on our own,” said Mann.

He was speaking to reporters after launching a flight from Ludhiana to Hindon at Sahnewal airport.

Earlier in the day, Anmol Gagan said AAP will not tie-up with the Congress in Punjab and fight on all 13 parliamentary seats in the state.

Separately, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring too said his party is gearing up to fight on all seats in the state.

The comments by Mann and Anmol Gagan comes days after Finance Minister Harpal Cheema — considered second in the pecking order in Punjab Cabinet — said that the ruling party in state will enter into an alliance with the Congress “to save the country and its democracy and Constitution”.

The two parties are constituents of the Opposition INDIA bloc that is preparing to take on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in 2024. On September 1, the INDIA bloc in a meeting in Mumbai resolved to contest the Lok Sabha polls together “as far as possible”, asserting seat-sharing arrangements in states will be concluded at the earliest in a “collaborative spirit of give-and-take”. In Punjab, the Congress is the main rival to the AAP.

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Talking to reporters, Anmol Gagan said that at the national level, many political parties have joined hands against the BJP to save democracy. “But in Punjab, we have the responsibility of the state. There will not be any kind of compromise. We will fight elections independently. We will not have any alliance with the Congress. Several leaders (of the Congress) are facing (corruption) cases,” the minister said.

It is the direction of CM Mann that the AAP will not have any alliance with the Congress in the state, she added.

Her remarks are in sharp contrast with Cheema’s statement where he said that Congress and AAP are already part of an alliance. “The INDIA bloc’s aim is very big. To achieve that, we must keep aside our small differences,” Cheema had said.

Meanwhile, Warring said the state unit of the Congress is confident that the high command will not take any decision on Punjab “without our consent”. He also said that the high command has not told the state unit about any tie-up or seat sharing in Punjab. “We have been asked to prepare for all 13 Lok Sabha seats,” Warring said.

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Asked if the high command decides to go for an alliance in Punjab, Warring said, “The high command is the supreme authority. What it says will happen. But we have full confidence that the high command will not take any decision without our consent”.

Asked whether the AAP’s Punjab unit has conveyed its views to the party’s central leadership, Anmol Gagan said, “Many parties, including the Congress, are part of the (INDIA) alliance. But in Punjab, politics is different. Here, we (AAP) can win 13 seats”. The AAP had won 92 of the 117 assembly seats in Punjab last year and people will again bless the party in the next elections, she said.

AAP launches Volunteer Meet Campaign

The AAP government on Wednesday launched Volunteer Meeting Campaign and party National Secretary Sandeep Pathak asked the leaders to reach out to every volunteer.

Under this, meetings will be held with volunteers by visiting every village and ward in which suggestions will be taken from volunteers for the elections to be held in the next few months in Punjab. He said that AAP is the only party which does not voluntarily announce candidates for any election.

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