Arvind Kejriwal, the President of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP,) on the 19th of March, said, the AAP will have no more talks with the Indian National Congress (INC) to form an alliance, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Arvind Kejriwal said, “As far as I know, the Congress has declined an alliance. We are not holding any talks with them. We don’t have anything to do with their meeting. The INC is planting stories.”
The comments of Mr. Kejriwal came after the INC said, they are holding meetings with the All India Congress Committee (AICC,) following which, they will decide about the pre poll alliance.
The INC declined the proposal of the AAP President to form a pre poll alliance to fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP.)
The idea was initiated by Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister (CM) of West Bengal, and N. Chandrababu Naidu, the CM of Andhra Pradesh. Both the anti BJP parties wanted to form a strong alliance and defeat the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Leaders such as Rahul Gandhi, the President of the INC, Mamata Banerjee, Chandrababu Naidu, Arvind Kejriwal and Sharad Pawar, the President of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP,) held a meeting at Sharad Pawar’s residence.
However, the meeting was not fruitful and the INC declined to form an alliance, saying the Party will contest alone.
Though the Party declined an alliance, Gopal Rai, the Convenor of the Delhi INC, said, the talks for the alliance with the AAP are still going on.
Many AAP leaders called the meetings and talks between the two Parties as ‘campaign stunts’ and said, the AAP will no longer have any talks about an alliance and will contest alone.
Although the AAP is not going to form an alliance, both the parties proposed a seat sharing formula. The AAP asked 5 seats for itself and 2 for the INC, whereas the INC proposed a 3:3:1 seat sharing formula, with 3 seats for both the Parties and one for an independent candidate.
P.C. Chacko, an INC leader, in charge of the INC in Delhi, said, “I had my last meeting with Sheila Dikshit yesterday [Monday]. She was against the alliance. I told her once again why and how the alliance is essential to defeat BJP in Delhi. Anything about a seat-sharing ratio was not on table. It will be discussed only after Rahul Gandhi takes the final call on the alliance. For now, nobody has officially approached us with seat sharing numbers, nor have we approached anyone. (sic.)”
Delhi will contest a total of 7 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The major parties contesting are the INC, the BJP and the AAP.
The Delhi Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to be held on the 12th of May.
The results of the Lok Sabha elections will be announced on the 23rd of May 2019.
Stay tuned for further updates about the Lok Sabha elections.
Also read : Lok Sabha Elections – AAP Announces 6 Candidates For Delhi Elections
