Day after defeat, Warring alleges AAP-BJP secret understanding

The PCC president in a statement, here Tuesday, dismissed the speculations about any factionalism in the party, which was being attributed as the cause of the party’s loss in the Ludhiana West assembly bypoll.

“Congress did not lose due to any infighting, Congress lost because the AAP and the BJP got together against us,” he said, while suggesting that the BJP got substantial proportion of its votes transferred to the AAP candidate.

He added that while the BJP’s vote share was reduced by half from what it got in the Lok Sabha polls, just a year ago, conversely, the AAP’s vote share got doubled from what it got in those elections.

He said that the BJP’s vote share in 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Ludhiana West was 41 per cent, which came down to 22 per cent this time. The AAP vote share in 2024 was 20 per cent, which went up to 39 per cent now. Compared to that, the Congress vote share remained almost the same, as it was 28 per cent in 2024, and this time it is 27 per cent.

He said, the reasons were not lost on anyone as the BJP deliberately delayed the announcement of its candidate and did not even campaign properly. “Moreover, the close friendly bonds between a senior BJP leader from Punjab and a senior AAP leader are too well known,” he said without taking any names.

The PCC president claimed that not only in Punjab, even in Gujarat the BJP was propping up AAP against the Congress. He said that the BJP deliberately fielded a newcomer against the AAP in Visavadar assembly constituency thus facilitating AAP’s victory and to grab the opposition space that is with the Congress.

On speculations of infighting, he said, “Let me reaffirm and reiterate that Congress remains united and together. Mere difference of opinion does not mean we are divided.”

He added that in Ludhiana West, the senior leadership, including former CM Charanjit Singh Channi and others worked day in and day out. He added that he was there on and off from the day of nominations itself.

He added that as PCC president, he was supposed to carry out other party activities and programmes also, which had been chalked out by the AICC. These included ‘Save Constitution Meetings’ and reaching out to the grassroots level workers.

Pointing out the media trial that the Congress faced, he asked, why the media was not raising the same questions to AAP as CM Bhagwant Mann and the party’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal did not show up in the last few days and nor did they join the party’s final roadshow.