Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal (File).
New Delhi:
The Aam Aadmi Party and Congress have reached a broad agreement to share seats in Delhi, Gujarat, Goa, Chandigarh and Haryana ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, sources told NDTV this afternoon, in a move indicative of the struggling India block formed last year. Defeating the Janata Party – may finally accomplish its task.
The deal is expected to be confirmed – at the residence of Congress leader KC Venugopal – at 4 pm. However, the party has indicated that there are still some details that need to be worked out.
Earlier today, sources said a deal for Delhi – where AAP is in power – is nearing completion, in which Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s party will contest on four seats and the Congress will name candidates on three seats.
Read | Big news for India, AAP-Congress finalize Delhi deal: Sources
Sources have now said deals have been struck for three other states – BJP-ruled – and Chandigarh.
AAP-Congress seat-share deal in Gujarat
In Gujarat – Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state – AAP will contest two seats – Bharuch and Bhavnagar – which are held by BJP’s Mansukhbhai Vasava and Bharati Shiyal. The party has already declared the names of Chaitra Vaishnav and Umesh Bhai Makwana as its candidates for these seats respectively.
AAP did not field any candidate in the last Lok Sabha elections, but its presence has improved with strong results in the 2022 Surat civic polls and an impressive five seats in the assembly elections.
Comparatively, the Congress performed disappointingly in both the elections; The party lost 60 assembly seats between 2017 and 2022, and has failed to win a single Lok Sabha seat since 2009, when it claimed 11 of the 26 available.
BJP won the state in the 2014 and 2019 general elections.
AAP-Congress Deal In Chandigarh
In return, Congress will contest the lone Lok Sabha seat from Chandigarh, which is currently held by the BJP. Kirron Kher won in 2014 and 2019, but before that Congress’s Pawan Kumar Bansal had won thrice.
Sources had earlier said that AAP may insist on contesting elections on this seat.
AAP-Congress seat-share deal in Haryana
Aam Aadmi Party will contest elections on one seat in Haryana.
Like Gujarat, in the last general elections, BJP was dominant in this state and it won all the 10 seats with about 60 percent votes. Congress fielded candidates on all 10 seats but failed by getting less than 29 percent of the votes.
At the same time, unlike Gujarat, Aam Aadmi Party did not contest this election. It also did not contest the last assembly election, which was in 2019, and the BJP won a comfortable victory, claiming 40 out of 90 seats. Congress won 31 seats.
AAP-Congress In Goa
AAP had earlier declared its candidate from the South Goa seat – Venzi Viegas – but will now withdraw the Benaulim MLA and hand over the seat to the Congress, which Francisco Sardinha had won in the last election.
It is not clear which of the two parties will contest the North Goa seat, which is held by the BJP.
No deal in Punjab
The agreement in these states, for now, has not changed the equation in Punjab, where AAP is set to contest all 13 seats. This was confirmed last week by Mr Kejriwal, who in doing so took a dig at the Congress.
Read | Kejriwal’s Punjab announcement a blow to Bharat Bloc unity
In the last Lok Sabha elections, Congress had won eight seats and AAP had won only one seat. However, since then, fortunes have completely reversed, with AAP dominating the 2022 assembly elections; It won 92 out of 117 seats.
Deal made in UP
On Wednesday, Congress signed an agreement with Samajwadi Party for 17 out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh. This was the India Bloc’s first major seat-share agreement, and came 24 hours after AAP-Congress registered India’s first electoral victory – the Chandigarh mayoral election, which was decided by the Supreme Court.
Read | India Block’s UP seat sharing agreement finalized, Congress gets 17 seats
Recently, 48 hours ago, no agreement seemed possible even with the Samajwadi Party. However, this was changed after Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra stepped in; Sources told NDTV that she personally reached out to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav to work out the details of a deal.
Is India waking up?
The bloc, founded in June to unify the opposition and defeat the BJP, has already lost a key member — Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) and, potentially, Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtra Lok Dal.
Bengal’s ruling Trinamool has walked out of the group again, rejecting seat-sharing talks after Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury continued attacks on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Read | AAP wins Chandigarh mayor election, apex court cancels earlier results
Winning the Chandigarh mayoral post is increasingly looking like the leap India needs to prove it can remain united and defeat Mr Modi and his BJP. The UP deal has added to that feel-good wave, and the AAP-Congress seat-sharing announcements are set to cap a good week for India.
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