AAP and Congress seal Delhi pact but obstacles remain in other states, from Gujarat to Goa

Eventually, the decision on Punjab, where both parties are going it alone, came easy as the state units of both parties stuck to their position of not aligning with the other. The AAP has also announced the names of three candidates in Assam. But it is seats in Gujarat and Goa that proved to be hurdles, with no clarity yet in the former.

Gujarat

Senior Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) leaders have been against sharing seats with AAP as the party “dented its prospects in the 2022 Assembly polls”. The wounds from this election are still fresh as the AAP damaged the Congress’s chances on several of the 35 seats where it came second by capturing over 20% of the votes in those seats, with nine of these segments being Congress bastions in tribal districts.

The Congress garnered over 27% of the votes in 2022 while the AAP got nearly 13%. The latter initially sought eight of the state’s 26 Lok Sabha seats based on vote share but the demand came down to two seats, subject to the outcome of seat-sharing talks in other states. A senior AAP leader said that after much back and forth, its Gujarat unit had declared Botad MLA Umesh Makwana as its candidate from Bhavnagar and Dediapada MLA Chaitar Vasava from Bharuch.

But the Congress considers Bharuch — which has gone to the BJP in the past six Lok Sabha polls — a “prestige seat” as it was the late Ahmed Patel’s home and constituency.

Even with the Gujarat seat-sharing talks underway, Congress’s Bharuch unit on Thursday went public with their “objection” to the alliance along with Patel’s son Faisal Patel and daughter Mumtaaz Patel. Newly appointed Congress district president Rajendrasinh Rana has written to the GPCC, objecting to any alliance with the AAP. On Friday, Faisal laid claim to the seat, posting on X, “Honorable Shri Rahul Gandhi Ji, you listened to me and the Bharuch Congress workers. By supporting us, I and my fellow Bharuch Congress workers have been honoured. I promise you that I will live up to your faith by winning the Bharuch Lok Sabha.”

A senior Congress leader said, “The AAP neither has any agenda nor notable candidates from any seat except Bharuch. It is unwilling to let go as Chaitar (Vasava) will then contest as an Independent, and the AAP doesn’t want to lose him.”

Goa

In Goa, which has just two Lok Sabha seats, the AAP has announced a candidate for the South Goa constituency where the sitting MP is from the Congress.

The party first made inroads in the state in 2020, when it won a Zila Panchayat seat in Benaulim in South Goa. In the 2022 Assembly polls, the party won only Velim and Benaulim, both in South Goa, out of the 40 at stake. The Goa Congress called the AAP’s move “unilateral and premature” while AAP’s Goa unit president Amit Palekar blamed the Congress for the “delay” in finalising seat-sharing. “Time is of the essence… With less than two months to go for polls… any delay can be harmful to campaigning and winning,” said Palekar on February 13.

There has been a rapprochement of sorts between the two parties since then and sources said on Thursday that the AAP had shown a willingness to step back from the seat after discussions.

Senior AAP leaders said they went ahead and announced the name of a candidate on a seat they felt confident about because the Congress was taking too long to respond or was unwilling to cede any ground. Later, Palekar had softened his stance, claiming the name had been announced as part of AAP’s ‘election strategy’, amid buzz that it could pull back its South Goa candidate.

Assam

AAP sources said the party announced candidates only in seats where they have already got traction in Assembly or municipal polls. For instance, last year the AAP scored two victories in the civic body polls in Upper Assam and then contested 38 of 60 seats in the Guwahati Municipal Corporation polls.

Party leaders said based on these performances that the candidates — state president Bhaben Choudhury for Guwahati, state vice-president Manoj Dhanowar for Dibrugarh, and state organising secretary Rishiraj Kaundinya for Sonitpur — were picked.

AAP’s Assam vice-president Jitul Deka told The Indian Express the party originally intended to field more candidates but pared down its aspirations because of the alliance. “From booth management to constituency committees, we were sure that organisationally, we would be able to contest strongly on these three seats. Initially, we thought that we would contest on about five seats, but because the alliance was formed, we chose three. In Dibrugarh, we analysed the demography and voter pattern and found that our candidate is strong… The last major election for us was the Guwahati Municipal Corporation polls where we won a councillor. The people of Guwahati’s metro constituencies want an educated local person, represented by Dr Bhaben Choudhury… The three constituencies we have chosen are ones in which the Congress has been losing for the last 15 years, and we saw it doesn’t have leaders with public touch in these,” he said.

He also said the party’s priority was to hit the ground as early as possible, and, as a new entrant to major elections in the state, to make sure that their symbol is recognisable in the constituencies they are contesting.