The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress on Saturday announced a formal seat-sharing arrangement in Delhi.
The AAP will contest four of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi while the remaining three will be contested by the Congress party, as part of the agreement between the two INDIA bloc partners.
As per the agreement, the Congress will field candidates in North East, Chandni Chowk, North West and the AAP will field candidates in New Delhi, East Delhi, West Delhi and South Delhi seats, Congress general secretary and MP Mukul Wasnik said in a joint press conference of AAP and Congress leaders in the national capital.
The parties have also agreed on a seat-sharing arrangement in Gujarat, Haryana, Chandigarh and Goa. The AAP will contest two seats – Bharuch and Bhavnagar seats in Gujarat.
In Haryana, AAP will contest on one seat (Kurukshetra). The Congress will contest on the lone seat in Chandigarh and in Goa too, the Congress will contest on both the seats, Wasnik said. AAP Rajya Sabha member Sandeep Pathak and ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj and Atishi represented Arvind Kejriwal-led party at the press conference.
Also read: Lok Sabha Polls 2024: Congress-Trinamool seat sharing talks back on track, say sources
The announcement is the first such alliance between the two rivals in Delhi and Punjab. It is also the second big agreement clinched in the beleaguered Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) after a similar seat sharing formula was agreed between the Congress and Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on December .
All seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi were won by BJP in 2014 and 2019 general elections. In 2019, the Congress came second in five seats — East Delhi, West Delhi, New Delhi, North East Delhi and Chandni Chowk — and the AAP came second in two seats — North West Delhi and South Delhi.
INDIA bloc is an amalgamation of leading opposition parties who have resolved to fight together in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections against the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The inaugural meeting of the Opposition coalition was held in Patna on June 23. Eight months since, the alliance has faced many setbacks. The biggest, of course, is from Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, who has now switched his party Janata Dal’s (United) allegiance to the NDA.
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Published: 24 Feb 2024, 11:42 AM IST