No Alliance With Congress? Haryana AAP Chief Says Party To Contest All Seats

An AAP-Congress alliance for next month's Haryana election appeared unlikely Monday afternoon after the former's state unit boss, Sushil Gupta, said his party will contest all 90 seats on its own.

This was minutes after the AAP released a first list of 20 hopefuls, including naming 11 to jostle for seats to which the Congress has named candidates. A second list will be "released soon", Mr Gupta said.

"AAP has made its decision.. we have gone ahead and announced candidates for 20 seats (with a) further list to come as well. We are confident about our outcome on all 90 seats..." he told NDTV.

"We waited (for the alliance) because the organisation (the 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 told reporters, "We were a partner in INDIA alliance (but) at national level."

The AAP was in 'wait and watch' mode till last week as talks with the Congress hit a roadblock.

The two parties had reached an 'in-principle' deal to re-form the alliance that stopped the BJP from sweeping Haryana's 10 Lok Sabha seats for a second straight election.

But working out a seat-share deal proved difficult; the AAP wanted 10 seats but the Congress was only willing to concede seven, pointing out its ally had failed to win the seat allotted to it - Kurukshetra, won by the BJP - in the general election. The Congress contested the other nine and won five.

For this election, sources said the Aam Aadmi Party wanted seats in the home turf of Congress leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, which he was expecting to allot to loyalists.

Mr Hooda told NDTV last month he had not spoken to the AAP's state leaders since the general election, and that the alliance was not specific to the state, where "the fight is between the BJP and Congress".

NDTV Exclusive | Advantage Congress In Haryana, Says Bhupinder Hooda

On Saturday Deepak Babaria said the Congress would offer only a "good small number" of seats.

READ | "If No Win-Win...": AAP Leader On Haryana Alliance Talks With Congress

The AAP's Raghav Chadha then spoke of "desire, wish, and hope for an alliance" from both parties, but warned a deal may not happen "if there is no win-win situation..."

Talks over a possible alliance had been nudged forward by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who, sources said, was aware the opposition will once again need to unite to defeat the BJP, particularly in a Hindi heartland state that the saffron party has dominated since 2014.

But the AAP's poor show in the Lok Sabha election left the Congress with the upper hand in seat-share talks, a position underlined by several state leaders who expressed concern.

The Congress' position has also been strengthened by the signing of wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, who have been leading protests against sex assault-accused former wrestling body chief Brij Bhushan Singh. Ms Phogat will contest the Julana seat.

READ | Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia To Contest Haryana Polls For Congress

There have also been murmurs of discontent within the AAP's ranks, with three-time Malviya Nagar MLA Somnath Bharti pointing out the Congress-Aam Aadmi alliance was routed 0-7 in the Lok Sabha election in the national capital. The AAP must now "evaluate the effectiveness" of a similar alliance for Haryana, Mr Bharti, who also claimed a lack of support from the Congress during campaigning, said.

The Haryana Assembly election was first scheduled for October 1 but it was postponed after representations from the Bishnoi community, which celebrates an ancient festival the day after.

The revised election date is now October 5, with votes to be counted on October 8.

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