NEW DELHI : Senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda has dashed hopes of seat sharing between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress party for the upcoming Haryana assembly elections. Rahul Gandhi wants to contest the Haryana elections in alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party.
The two parties could not reach a consensus after the proposal received objections from the state leadership, especially the camp led by former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Both parties are part of the opposition’s Bharat Bloc. They will contest the 90-member Haryana Assembly separately. The AAP had given an ultimatum to the Congress to decide on seat sharing by Monday evening.
An AAP MP said that the Congress wanted seats in the home turf of leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, which he was hoping to allocate to his loyalists.The poor performance of the AAP in the Lok Sabha elections gave the Congress an edge in the seat sharing talks. The joining of wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia in the party has also strengthened the Congress’ position. Vinesh Phogat is contesting from Julana seat. Bhupinder Hooda said the Congress will benefit in Haryana.
Meanwhile, the AAP released its first list of 20 candidates for the October 5 elections in Haryana. The AAP said it will release more names soon. AAP’s Haryana chief Sushil Gupta said the party will field candidates on all 90 seats. “We have waited long enough for the Congress party. It is difficult to wait any longer,” Gupta said after the first list was released.
This came minutes after the AAP released its first list of 20 candidates, which includes names of 11 candidates for seats on which the Congress has announced its candidates. Gupta said the second list will be released “soon”. He said, “AAP has taken its decision…we have gone ahead and announced candidates for 20 seats (and) more lists will be released. We are confident of our results in all 90 seats…”
“We waited (for alliance) because the organisation (Congress) is strong in every assembly and that strong organisation wanted us to contest the election. We showed our patience and after that we released our list…” Mr Gupta said, “We were a partner in Bharat Gathbandhan (but) at the national level.” Till last week, AAP was in “wait and watch” mode after talks with Congress hit a roadblock. The two parties had reached an “in principle” agreement to revive the alliance, which prevented the BJP from winning all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana for the second consecutive election. Congress has released names of 41 candidates. AAP’s first list comes after Congress released three lists of 41 names for the Haryana elections.
On September 6, the Congress had released its first list of 31 candidates for the Haryana assembly elections. The second list of Congress candidates with 9 names was released on Sunday. One name was released separately. According to sources, the AAP wanted to contest at least 10 seats, but the Congress was not willing to give more than seven seats to the Arvind Kejriwal-led party. AAP MP Raghav Chadha was in talks with Congress’ Deepak Babaria about a possible alliance. Chadha had claimed on Sunday that both parties were hopeful of a successful outcome. But now further talks are unlikely.
On Saturday, Deepak Babaria said the Congress would give only a “small number” of seats. Following this, AAP’s Raghav Chadha spoke of the “desire, wish and hope” for an alliance with both parties, but warned that the deal may not happen “if a win-win situation is not created for both sides”. The revised election date in the state is now October 5, and the counting of votes will take place on October 8.

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