The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress party have failed to reach a consensus on seat-sharing for the upcoming Haryana Assembly election. The two parties, which are part of Opposition’s INDIA bloc, will fight the election to the 90-member Haryana assembly separately.
Earlier in the day, AAP released first of list of 20 candidates for the October 5 polls in Haryana. AAP said it will release more names soon. AAP’s Haryana chief Sushil Gupta said that the party will field candidates on all 90 seats.
“We waited enough for the Congress party. Waiting more is difficult,” Gupta said after the first list was released.
Congress has releases 41 candidates
AAP’s first list came after Congress has already released three lists of candidates for Haryana polls comprising 41 names. On September 6, the Congress released its first list of 31 candidates for Haryana Assembly elections. The second list of Congress candidates with 9 names was released on Sunday. One name was released separately.
AAP wanted to contest on at least 10 seats, but the Congress wasn’t willing to spare more than three for the Arvind Kejriwal-led party, according to sources.
The AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPRaghav Chadhahas been holding talks with Deepak Babaria of Congressover a prospective alliance. Chadha on Sunday said that both the parties are hopeful for a successful outcome.
But now the talks have been put on hold. The AAP had given Congress ultimatum until Monday evening to decide on the seat-sharing.
The Hooda Huddle
Reports suggested that Rahul Gandhi was keen on contesting Haryana polls in alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party. But the proposal met with objections from the state leadership, especially from the camp headed by former chief ministerBhupinder Singh Hooda.
We waited enough for the Congress party. Waiting more is difficult.
The disagreement within the party over the proposed alliance had even resulted in Hooda, the Haryana Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, walking out of one of the party’s meetings, according to a report in Indian Express.