"Congress, AAP INDIA partners, will fight LS polls unitedly": Arvinder Singh Lovely after Delhi seat deal
Feb 22, 2024
New Delhi [India], February 22 : Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Arvinder Singh Lovely on Thursday announced that there will be an alliance between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress in the national capital for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
However, there is no official confirmation of the details of the seat-sharing pact between the two parties.
"The Congress and AAP are partners in the INDIA bloc. Not only in Delhi, the alliance will fight the Lok Sabha polls unitedly across the country," Lovely told reporters on Thursday.
"We will reveal the details of the seat-sharing pact soon," he added.
However, according to sources, both parties reached a deal for a four-three alliance, with the AAP contesting four seats and the Congress fielding candidates for three.
The breakthrough on seat-sharing came after several rounds of deliberations this week and on Thursday, as well as a meeting at Congress heavyweight KC Venugopal's Delhi residence.
In the meeting, Venugopal and Mukul Wasnik represented the Congress while Sandeep Pathak, Saurabh Bhardwaj and Atishi represented the AAP.
In the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabhas, the BJP won all seven seats in the national capital.
In the 2004 elections, the Congress won 6 seats and the BJP 1 while in 2009, the Congress won all 7 seats in the national capital.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that the Congress is likely to give AAP one seat in Haryana while the latter will support the former in the battle for the prized Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat.
The AAP swept the 2015 Assembly elections in the national capital, winning 67 of the 70 seats.
In a near-repeat of its performance in 2020, the Arvind Kejriwal-led party ruled the roost, bagging 62 of the 70 seats in the Assembly.
In BJP-ruled Gujarat, the AAP is believed to have demanded three seats from the Congress in the ongoing seat-sharing talks.
However, a final agreement on this is awaited.
