Why AAP, Congress failed to strike Haryana poll deal

The Haryana Congress, especially the dominant faction led by Leader of Opposition in the state Bhupinder Singh Hooda, was strongly against an alliance with the AAP from the beginning. Gandhi, on the other hand, was keen to see the party strike a deal with the Kejriwal-led party to send a message of unity in the INDIA alliance. The high command also wanted to rope in the Samajwadi Party, giving it one or two seats.

Failure to arrive at a seat-sharing agreement may impact the possibility of the two major INDIA bloc allies coming together for the Delhi Assembly polls next year, according to leaders in the two parties. Both AAP and Congress were preparing to announce their second and third lists soon, insiders said.

As the AAP released its first list, the Congress maintained a strategic silence. All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in charge of Haryana, Deepak Babaria, who was holding talks with the AAP till Sunday, was admitted to a hospital after complaining about feeling unwell.

Sources said the AAP initially demanded 10 to 15 seats but climbed down and conveyed to the Congress that it was willing to settle for five to seven constituencies, provided these were of its choice. The Congress, however, was not keen to part with seats such as Kalayat, Pehowa, Kalayat, Jind, Guhla, and Sohna that the AAP was seeking. Sources in the AAP claimed the Congress was offering it “weak seats”. During the discussions, the AAP’s negotiators, led by its Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha, gave the Congress different pools of seats but an agreement eluded both sides.

An AAP leader, who did not wish to be named, alleged that a “senior Congress leader” sabotaged the talks by repeatedly flagging as non-negotiable the seats that the Kejriwal-led party wanted. “Hence, we could not find a mix of seats agreeable to both the Congress and the AAP,” he said. Pehowa, Kalayat, and Guhla are part of the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha constituency that the AAP contested in the Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the Congress. The AAP led in all three Assembly segments.

An AAP source blamed “Delhi-based Congress leaders” for the grand old party dragging its feet to the point of stalling the talks. The AAP would keep a keen eye on rebels from across the political spectrum to “provide them a platform” in the elections, the source added. The AAP’s first list included as many as 12 seats where the Congress has already announced its candidates: Naraingarh, Assandh, Uchana Kalan, Samalkha, Meham, Badshahpur, Rohtak, Badli, Beri, Mahendragarh, Dabwali, and Bahadurgarh. The Congress has so far announced 41 candidates for the elections to elect 90 MLAs, scheduled for October 5. The votes will be counted on October 8.

A senior AAP leader said the party was choosing to lay an organisational foundation in new Assembly constituencies where it was confident of establishing a presence and consolidating its position in seats where it already has a cadre base. This approach, the functionary added, was in line with the AAP’s aim of creating a political buffer between Delhi and Punjab, both of whose governments are run by the party.

“We clearly want to come together with the Congress to isolate and defeat the BJP but what can we do if the Congress does not want to do so?” the AAP functionary asked, before adding, “Haryana, given its geographical location between Delhi and Punjab, where the AAP is in power, and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s home state, is naturally one where the party wants to ensure its influence; our choice of seats is based on this aim.”

Another AAP leader said, “Time is progressively running out with just a few days to go for the nomination process and the possibility of an agreement being reached before that seems unlikely. The Congress’s decision to not go ahead with the alliance, which would have been beneficial for both parties in terms of vote share by isolating the BJP, will shift the focus for the AAP. Given the position this puts us in, we have no option but to focus on our future in Haryana over and above anything else.”