Congress and AAP seal LS pact in Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Goa, Chandigarh

AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik said, “The Congress has been discussing alliance with various partners across the country. We have already declared a seat-sharing agreement with the Samajwadi Party in UP.”

In Delhi, Wasnik said, the Congress and the AAP have reached a seat-sharing agreement. “Delhi has 7 Lok Sabha seats; AAP will contest four: New Delhi, South Delhi, West Delhi and East Delhi. Congress will contest Chandni Chowk, North West Delhi and North East Delhi,” he said.

In Haryana, which has 10 Lok Sabha seats, Wasnik said the Congress will contest from 9 seats while the AAP will field its candidate from Kurukshetra.

Of the 26 seats in Gujarat, the Congress will contest 24, leaving two seats for the AAP – Bhavnagar and Bharuch, Wasnik said, adding that the Congress will contest from both the constituencies in Goa besides the Chandigarh seat under the agreement.

“We will contest the elections on our symbols. All our leaders and supporters are ready to put in all their strength to confront the BJP,” he said.

Wasnik was flanked by AICC in-charge of Delhi and Haryana Deepak Babaria and Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely as well as AAP leaders Saurabh Bharadwaj, Atishi and its national general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak.

Sources said a last-minute change in the seat-sharing pact for Delhi led to the allotment of the North West Delhi seat to the Congress as per its insistence with the East Delhi seat going to the AAP in exchange.

The Congress conceded Gujarat’s Bharuch seat to the AAP even though its stalwart late Ahmed Patel’s son Faisal Patel and daughter Mumtaz Patel were vocal aspirants for the seat, highlighting that the constituency had been their family’s home turf from where Ahmed Patel had won three consecutive times until 1984. The BJP has been winning this seat since 1989.

The AAP has already announced that its senior leader and Dediapada MLA Chaitar Vasava will be its candidate from the Bharuch seat.

Senior AAP and Congress leaders after announcing the seat-sharing arrangement.

Expressing her disappointment over the allotment of the Bharuch constituency to AAP, Mumtaz Patel, in a post on X, said: “Deeply apologize to our district cadre for not being able to secure the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat in alliance. I share your disappointment. Together, we will regroup to make @INCIndia stronger. We won’t let @ahmedpatel 45 years of Legacy go in vain.”

A day earlier, Faisal Patel said that the party high command had put on hold the decision on Bharuch after he wrote a letter to Rahul Gandhi. He also thanked Rahul for “listening and supporting” Thursday’s protest by the party’s Bharuch unit over reports that Congress had decided to give away the seat to AAP. “I promise you (Rahul) that I will live up to your faith by winning the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat,” he wrote on X.

The Congress, however, managed to prevail upon the AAP to leave the two Goa seats — Goa North and Goa South — for its nominees. The AAP will withdraw the candidate it announced for South Goa, where Francisco Sardinha of the Congress is the sitting MP.

The AAP also agreed to hand over the Chandigarh seat to the Congress as part of the deal.

AAP’s Sandeep Pathak slammed the BJP for allegedly “stealing” votes and going after Opposition leaders, and maintained that the INDIA bloc will unitedly take on the BJP in the polls.

“Opposition leaders are being thrown behind bars by the BJP to win elections as the country reels under unemployment and inflation. Keeping this in mind, instead of smaller concerns, we have entered into the alliance… The country is more important, the party comes second,” he said.

Wasnik alleged that the “conditions that the BJP has created” has posed a challenge to the country. “Everyone has the ED, CBI after them. This is very dangerous for the country. Not just the AAP and Congress, but the people of the country will fight the BJP,” he said.

The BJP reacted sharply and its North East Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari said, “The AAP-Congress seat sharing agreement in Delhi is a pact between thieves; AAP workers are severely disappointed because Arvind Kejriwal has prostrated himself at the feet of the same people — Sonia and Rahul Gandhi — he used to say belong behind bars… Congress workers too are disappointed because the same people who were abused out of power by the AAP today see Kejriwal breaking bread with Rahul Gandhi.”

New Delhi BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi said,“Will they be able to face the combined strength of the leadership of PM Narendra Modi and the organisational structure of the BJP? This is the biggest question.”

“This is a zero sum game; powerless parties have come together and are performing an upside down shirshasana in front of each other for survival,” she said.