Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party has joined hands with the Congress party to jointly contest in the six out of the seven constituencies in Delhi in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The AAP-Congress alliance has also agreed to leave one seat for disgruntled BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, who will contest as an independent candidate, reports DNA.
According to the reports, AAP and the Congress will contest three seats each and decided to leave one for former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha, who has openly shown his disappointment after being denied any position in the BJP post-2014.
AAP will contest in South, East and North East Delhi constituencies and the party is set to field Dilip Pandey, Atishi Marlena and Raghav Chadha respectively. Congress will contest in West Delhi, North West Delhi and Chandni Chowk. Yashwant Sinha may contest from New Delhi constituency as an independent candidate. AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh denied media reports of supporting Sinha as an independent candidate.
“Talks were going on for past three months and it has been decided that both parties will contest on three seats,” a source in Delhi Congress said, according to DNA.
Reportedly, both Congress and AAP are also finalising a seat-sharing deal in three other states of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab to fight the BJP in the upcoming general elections.
The coming together of Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party has irked the senior leaders of both the party. Recently, senior Congress leader Ajay Maken had resigned from the party as he had allegedly objected to any such pre-poll alliance between the Congress and the AAP. Similarly, HS Phoolka, a senior AAP leader had resigned after he knew that there were serious talks of AAP-Congress alliance ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Some Congress leaders and ground workers do not want the party to align with any political party to fight the BJP. Senior leader Ajay Maken, who had revived the party after the 2014 debacle is also said to be not in favour of Congress alliance with the AAP.
Note: The above report has been updated with the latest information.
