Congress-AAP alliance talks hit roadblock? Differences emerge over seat-sharing arrangement

New Delhi: The pre-poll alliance talks between the Congress and the AAP for the Haryana Assembly elections remained inconclusive on Wednesday as the two parties failed to reach a consensus on seat-sharing arrangement. The hectic parleys over seat-sharing began between the two parties on Tuesday with hard bargaining from both sides.

According to sources, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) wants to contest 10 seats but the Congress is not willing to give more than seven seats to the party. The Congress’ central election committee (CEC) has already finalised the names of candidates for 66 seats out of 90.

Differences crop up over seat-sharing

On Tuesday, senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha and Congress’ KC Venugopal held two rounds of talks to explore the possibility of forging an alliance before the Haryana polls. Earlier today, AICC general secretary in-charge of Haryana Deepak Babaria and Chadha held talks to decide on the possible tie-up. Babaria yesterday said that alliance talks between AAP and Congress were in a primitive stage and possibilities were being explored.

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“The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is demanding 10 seats. However, Congress is ready to give only seven out of the total of 90 seats. AAP has claimed one seat from each of the 10 Lok Sabha constituencies,” said a source in the Arvind Kejriwal-led party.

Rahul Gandhi wants AAP-Congress alliance

The alliance talks between the Congress and AAP started after party leader Rahul Gandhi expressed interest in stitching an alliance with the AAP for the Haryana polls. The former Congress chief in a meeting of CEC had also sought the opinion of party leaders over the possibility of an alliance with AAP in Haryana where polls will be held on October 5. Notably, the Congress and AAP contested the recently-held Lok Sabha elections together.

Earlier on Tuesday, AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh welcomed Gandhi’s move and said that defeating the BJP is a priority of all the Opposition parties. He also said that the final call on alliance will be taken by Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, who is currently in jail in excise policy-related cases.