Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal (File).
New Delhi:
The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party – which led the India Bloc to its first electoral victory in the Chandigarh mayoral election this week – have finalized seat-share agreements for the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, Gujarat, Goa and Haryana, sources told NDTV on Friday afternoon. told. ,
Details will be revealed at a press conference later today, but India Bloc members are understood to have agreed to split the seven Delhi seats four each.
Sources have said that apart from New Delhi, AAP will field candidates from East, West and South Delhi, while Congress will contest from North West and North East Delhi and Chandi Chowk.
In the 2019 elections, BJP won all seven seats.
A few hours later, NDTV was told that a deal had also been struck for Goa, Chandigarh, Gujarat and Haryana, with reports indicating that two seats in Gujarat, and one seat each in Haryana and Chandigarh were part of the deal.
Read | After Delhi, AAP-Congress seal seat deal for Goa, Haryana, Gujarat: Sources
The last known position in each of these states was that in Gujarat – Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state – AAP will contest two seats, the lone Lok Sabha seat in Chandigarh will go to the Congress, along with the South Goa seat, while in Haryana AAP will get at least one seat.
Of these, the BJP won in Gujarat and Haryana in the last elections, winning all 26 seats in the former and all 10 seats in the latter. In Goa, where there are only two Lok Sabha seats, the BJP took North Goa and trailed Congress’s Francisco Sardinha by less than 10,000 votes in South Goa.
Mr Modi’s party also won the Chandigarh seat; Congress had previously held the seat three times, with Pawan Kumar Bansal winning in 1999, 2004 and 2009. There was talk that AAP would insist on this seat.
Congress-led India has been busy this week – with just days left for the Lok Sabha election dates to be announced – closing deals in Uttar Pradesh, finalizing agreements in Maharashtra and hoping for a revival of fortunes in Bengal.
Read | “Even with binoculars…”: Trinamool source on Congress’s demand for 5 seats
These agreements, for now, have not changed the equation in Punjab, where AAP is set to contest all 13 seats. This was confirmed by party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal last week, who took a dig at the Congress in doing so.
The UP agreement – under which the Congress will contest 17 of the state’s 80 seats and Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (and regional allies) the other 63 – was India’s first major seat-share agreement, and Mr Yadav’s participation ‘ Came after ‘ultimatum’. In the party’s ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’.
Read | India Block’s UP seat sharing agreement finalized, Congress will contest on 17 seats
Formed in June to defeat Mr Modi and the BJP, the India Bloc already has alliances with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) – a founding member – and Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtra Lok Dal, which has influence among the Jat community in western UP. , has been lost. , Both JDU and RLD have formed an alliance with BJP.
Knowing that further losses, or delays in sealing the seat-share deal, would make it even more difficult to fight the BJP’s formidable election-winning machinery, the Congress this week held talks with senior leaders – Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Efforts have been intensified. , and Sonia Gandhi – all playing lead roles.
Read | Sonia, Priyanka Gandhi step in to resolve UP seat-sharing deadlock
Mr Gandhi has spoken to Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray to complete talks in Maharashtra and Ms Gandhi Vadra has ensured that a deal is reached with Akhilesh Yadav. Sonia Gandhi may be called upon to help broker a compromise with Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, with whom she has good relations.
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