As Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar walks out of the Opposition camp, imparting a deep cut to the INDIA bloc, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal added a twist, with a declaration that his Aam Aadmi Party will go solo for the assembly election in Haryana. For the Lok Sabha polls, he would be contesting as part of the INDIA bloc, he said.
"AAP will contest the Lok Sabha elections together with India Alliance but will contest assembly elections alone on all 90 seats of Haryana by itself," Mr Kejriwal said today.
AAP has made it clear that there will be no seat sharing in neighbouring Punjab even for the Lok Sabha polls.
AAP's Haryna unit had also asked to go solo in theb Lok Sabha polls but that has been turned down by the central leadership.
The Haryana announcement is expected to drive another wedge into the INDIA bloc, since the state leaders of AAP and the Congress will be in rivalry mode -- a situation that has queered the pitch for a common opposition front in several states, including Bengal and Delhi.
Earlier, the INDIA alliance suffered a setback when Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said that there would be no alliance with the grand old party for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Today, Nitish Kumar formally stepped down as Chief Minister and took oath again partnering the BJP. The change of camp by Mr Kumar -- widely credited with being the proponent of the Opposition bloc – is expected to be a huge downer for the Opposition.
The situation has provided the BJP a massive opportunity to slam the Opposition.
Over the weekend, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said" "We had all been saying from day 1 that this is just photoshoot and nothing is going to come out of it. AAP declared today that they would contest alone. Mamata Banerjee also announced that the party will contest independently...Other parties are also going to same the same. Wait for it."
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