The Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress have agreed on a 4:3 seat-sharing arrangement for Delhi to contest together in the next Lok Sabha elections. They’ve also established an agreement for Gujarat, Haryana, Goa, and Chandigarh.
In Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal’s party will run for four of the seven seats: West Delhi, South Delhi, East Delhi, and New Delhi. The remaining three – North East Delhi, North West Delhi, and Chandni Chowk – will attend the grand old party.
During the 2019 election, the BJP won all seven seats.
The seat-sharing announcement was made during a joint press conference of the AAP and the Congress, weeks after the opposition’s INDIA bloc delivered their first electoral win in the Chandigarh mayoral poll.
AAP will contest from two seats in Gujarat – Bharuch and Bhavnagar – and one in Haryana – Kurukshetra. Both seats in Goa and the sole constituency in Chandigarh will be contested by the Congress. The AAP had declared a candidate for South Goa last week and will withdraw it to make way for its ally.
Seat-sharing has been a huge concern for the INDIA group, with regional parties’ expectations dragging down discussions. The Congress’ recent electoral losses in three core states have empowered regional parties to seek a larger number of seats.
The Congress has already reached an agreement with Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party. The party will fight 17 seats in Uttar Pradesh, which has the most MPs in the Lok Sabha. In Maharashtra, an impasse prevails, with Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT) unable to agree on eight seats.
Trinamool has stated that they will run for all 42 seats in West Bengal, which presents a further challenge for the Congress. According to sources, Trinamool is unwilling to award the Congress more than two seats in the eastern state, despite its demand for at least five.
Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United and Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtra Lok Dal have already left the INDIA group, which was formed last year to oppose the BJP. Both have sided with the BJP.
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Source: NDTV
