Punjab CM Mann softens stand on AAP alliance with Cong after Kejriwal sets tone

Replying to a media query over the possibility of the AAP’s tie-up with the Congress, CM Mann said, “We will know in the next INDIA bloc meeting. We will know after the discussions in that meeting. The meeting will be held soon.”

Mann also said, “We are fighting for the country. If Constitution is saved then the country will be saved. If Constitution is saved then the parties will be protected.”

On the Punjab Congress’s opposition to an alliance with the AAP on the ground that it will damage the former, the CM said, “Otherwise, what state is the Congress in.”

Taking a swipe at the Congress, he also said, “In Delhi and Punjab, mothers would be able to tell the shortest story to their children. That would be – Ek thi Congress.”

Though Mann took potshots at the Congress, his posturing was seen as a “softening” of stance on the alliance issue.

In September, Mann had made it clear while speaking to reporters that the AAP was capable of facing the parliamentary polls alone. The AAP had fought alone in the 2022 Punjab Assembly polls and won 92 seats out of 117, he had said.

He had then also said the AAP had won the Delhi polls thrice and that it garnered 13% votes in Gujarat on its own steam.

“AAP is the youngest party to have become a national party. We know forming governments and running them also,” the CM had said.

Mann’s remarks at that time came soon after his tourism minister Anmol Gagan Maan had also opposed any tie-up with the Congress.

The Punjab unit of the Congress has been opposing the proposal of an alliance with the AAP vehemently. Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa has maintained that the party rank and file was not ready to accept a tie-up with the AAP in the state, pointing out that the elections are fought by the cadre.

Former Congress minister Pargat Singh has also opposed it publicly. Another ex-minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu has claimed that he would prefer to sit at home rather than being part of such an alliance.

The Punjab Congress has been upset with the AAP government after vigilance inquiries were ordered against several of its leaders including Ashu, who spent a few months in jail. It is another matter that the Congress MPs have been willing to join hands with the ruling party for the Lok Sabha polls.

The AAP is hoping for a clarity on seat-sharing by the middle of this month, a senior party leader said. “Be it Punjab or Delhi, we will go into seat-sharing discussions with the Congress with an open mind. There is no other way to address the situation. If the country has to be saved, if the Constitution is to be saved, the talk about losing the voter base for Assembly elections will have to be kept on the backburner,” the leader said.

In his address to the AAP national executive and national council members via video link on Sunday, Delhi CM and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal said the AAP must contest on the seats it gets in the seat-sharing pact.

“The AAP is part of the INDIA alliance in the Lok Sabha elections. We must contest well on the seats we get in seat- sharing, and our entire effort will be to win all those seats. Volunteers of the party from states where the AAP isn’t contesting Lok Sabha elections will come and help in the places where elections are being contested,” Kejriwal said.

On the number of seats the AAP is willing to part with the Congress in the event of an alliance in Delhi, a party leader said, “The last time these talks were underway with the Congress, the discussions were around a 4-3 or 5-2 seat sharing matrix (for AAP and Congress respectively out of Delhi’s 7 seats). But that did not materialise because a discussion on seat-sharing in Haryana did not go the way it was envisioned. This year the situation is different and there is more commitment from alliance partners,” the AAP leader said.

The AAP leaders however made it clear that the seat-sharing talks would remain restricted to the Lok Sabha polls.

“This was something we knew going in. Every party has aspirations. We all are coming together to contest against BJP in Lok Sabha polls because we want to save the country. State polls are a different ballgame,” the leader added.

In his Sunday address, Kejriwal also said that the AAP will contest the Haryana Assembly polls. “After the Lok Sabha elections, the Haryana Assembly election is the most significant for us. The AAP intends to form the government in Haryana, and we will put all our efforts into it.”

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, both the AAP and the Congress drew a blank in Delhi, where all seven seats were bagged by the BJP. In Punjab, out of 13 seats, the Congress won eight as against the AAP’s one seat, with the BJP and SAD, then fighting together as part of the NDA, picking two seats each.