New Delhi:

The Congress is offering “good small numbers” of seats in Haryana to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in an effort to forge a pre-poll alliance ahead of the October 5 Assembly elections, state Congress in-charge Deepak Babaria said after a meeting with AAP leader Raghav Chadha on Saturday.

Deepak Babaria told IANS that negotiations are underway and it is likely that the INDIA bloc partners will reach a deal by Sunday.

“Negotiations are going on, we will see where adjustments can be made,” he said.

Asked the number of seats the AAP will get, the Congress leader didn’t divulge any exact figure but said, “Good small numbers”.

On Friday, AAP leader Chadha said that the two parties are engaged in last-minute negotiations ”for the interest of the people of the Haryana”, adding that nothing ”conclusive”, however, has been reached yet on pre-poll coalition.

The AAP Rajya Sabha member told IANS that the talks are moving in a ”positive direction” and both parties are hopeful of a coalition ahead of the Assembly elections.

“Talks are going on. For the interest of Haryana, its people as well as the country, we are exploring this coalition. We are hopeful and making all efforts to reach a common ground,” Chadha said.

The talks of a pre-poll coalition between the two parties gathered steam after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi expressed the desire at the recent Haryana screening committee meeting to align with like-minded parties to dislodge the BJP from power.

The Congress MP also asked Haryana state leaders and in-charges to explore an alliance with AAP to rule out the division of votes and also to present the INDIA bloc as a united and potent force in the poll-bound state.

Rahul Gandhi’s statement was welcomed by the AAP.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, out of the 10 seats in Haryana, the BJP saw its tally reduced to five a clean sweep in 2019, while the INDIA bloc clinched the remaining five seats.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The Congress and the BJP both face hiccups in finalising candidates for next month’s Haryana election, sources told NDTV Friday, days after the former began seat-sharing talks with the AAP, seeking a revival of the INDIA alliance that won five of 10 Lok Sabha seats in April-June.

As far as the Congress is concerned, as it was with seat-share talks with other opposition parties before the Lok Sabha election, there is disagreement between state and central leaders. Congress leaders in Haryana are unwilling to concede too many of Haryana’s 90 seats.

Differences have also emerged, sources said, over which seats the AAP can get; some of those identified by Arvind Kejriwal’s party are those to which the Congress’ influential former Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda expects to nominate his loyalists.

The Congress and the AAP announced an ‘in-principle’ deal on Wednesday.

This was after Rahul Gandhi urged his party to form an alliance with the AAP to guard against the division of votes. Mr Gandhi has been clear that it will take a concerted effort by the opposition to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, whether in central or state elections.

In early exchanges the AAP wanted 10 seats but the Congress would offer five to seven only, with another likely to go to Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party, another INDIA member.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha election in Haryana the Congress contested nine seats (and won five) and left the tenth to the AAP, but Mr Kejriwal’s party failed to wrest Kurukshetra from the BJP.

Sources said the Congress has pointed to this, and that wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia will contest on its tickets, to claim it has the best chance of defeating the BJP.

BJP’s Haryana Election Issues

The BJP, meanwhile, faces internal squabbles after naming a first list of 67 candidates, with Jails Minister Ranjit Chautala and MLA Lakshman Napa quitting after being denied tickets.

Mr Chautala has said he will contest as an independent candidate, while Mr Napa met Congress leader Hooda at his residence and said he would join that party.

READ | Denied Haryana Poll Tickets, BJP Minister And MLA Quit Party

Ranjit Chautala is the son of Devi Lal Chaudhary, one of the state’s tallest and most respected political leaders, who was also twice Chief Minister and served as Deputy Prime Minister.

Mr Chautala was hoping to contest from Rania – the seat he won in 2019 as an independent but quit to join the BJP and contest the Hisar Lok Sabha seat, which he lost.

The BJP fielded Shishpal Kamboj instead.

Meanwhile, Karan Dev Kamboj has resigned as chief of the BJP’s OBC Morcha state unit after also being denied a ticket. “Perhaps the BJP does not need loyalists anymore,” he said, taking a swipe at the party for giving tickets to former rival leaders who have recently joined the party.

READ | On BJP’s Haryana 1st List – Jail Officer Who Gave Ram Rahim 6 Paroles

A significant name in the BJP’s first list is former prison official Sunil Sangwan – had who granted Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Ram Rahim parole a staggering six times.

When Is Haryana Election?

The Haryana Assembly election will be held on October 5. 

The election was first scheduled for October 1 but it was deferred by the Election Commission to honour the voting rights and traditions of the Bishnoi community, for whom a festival – the centuries-old Asoj Amavasya festival in remembrance of Guru Jambeshwar – is on October 2.

READ | Haryana Poll Dates Revised To October 5, Counting 3 Days Later

The Bishnois represent a sizeable voting community in at least three districts of the state.

Therefore, results for the Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir elections – the first in the former state since 2014 – will now be announced on October 8 instead of October 4, the poll body said. 

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.

New Delhi:

Congress leader Arvinder Singh Lovely today resigned as the chief of the party’s Delhi unit over its alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Arvinder Singh Lovely said that several AAP ministers have been jailed over corruption charges, still the Congress formed an alliance with Arvind Kejriwal’s party for the Lok Sabha elections amid opposition by party workers.

Mr Lovely – in a letter to Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge – said that since he cannot protect the interests of the Delhi Congress workers, he sees no reason to continue as the chief of city’s party unit.

“The Delhi Congress Unit was against an alliance with a party (AAP) which was formed on the sole basis of leveling false, fabricated and malafide corruption charges against the Congress. Despite that, the party made a decision to ally with the AAP in Delhi,” he said.

He said the party gave Lok Sabha tickets to candidates who were “total strangers” to the Delhi Congress unit, referring to Udit Raj’s candidature in North-west Delhi and Kanhaiya Kumar in Northeast Delhi. 

The party high command’s decision to field Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj for the polls has caused friction among the party leaders in Delhi, sources said.

Party leaders, sources said, are not ready to compromise since the AICC and high command ignored their views and concerns. “Several Delhi leaders are also planning to join the BJP or form a new party if their issues are not resolved, sources told NDTV. 

Mr Lovely also slammed Kanhaiya Kumar for praising Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who is behind bars.

“Such ill-thought and factually incorrect statements have not gone down well with the Delhi Congress unit since the local party workers had an inherent understanding that the alliance was not done in appreciation of AAP’s false propaganda of the development of Delhi,” he said.

Hinting at internal rift, Mr Lovely also alleged that several decisions taken by him as the Delhi Congress Chief were vetoed by AICC Delhi in-charge Deepak Babria.

“Since my appointment as DPCC President, the AICC General Secretary (Delhi In-charge) has not allowed me to make any senior appointments in the DPCC,” he said.

Arvinder Singh Lovely was appointed the Delhi Congress President in August last year.

The Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress had agreed to a 4:3 seat-sharing formula for Delhi earlier this year to put up a joint fight in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

In Delhi, the Arvind Kejriwal-led party is contesting four out 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 – are with the grand old party.

Seat-sharing has been one of the major headaches for the INDIA bloc with the aspirations of the regional parties dragging the negotiations. The Congress’s recent electoral setbacks in three heartland states have emboldened the regional powers to seek a bigger share of seats.

The INDIA bloc, which was set up last year to take on the BJP, has already lost two key members – Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United and Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtra Lok Dal. Both have aligned with the BJP.

 

New Delhi:

The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party – who this week delivered the INDIA bloc’s first electoral win, in the Chandigarh mayoral poll – have finalised seat-share deals for Lok Sabha polls in Delhi, Gujarat, Goa, and Haryana, sources told NDTV Friday afternoon.

The details will be revealed at a press conference later today, but the INDIA bloc members are understood to have agreed a four-three split of Delhi’s seven seats.

Sources have said the AAP will field candidates from East, West and South Delhi, in addition to New Delhi, while Congress will contest from North West and North East Delhi, and Chandi Chowk.

In the 2019 election the BJP won all seven seats.

Hours later NDTV was told a deal had also been struck for Goa, Chandigarh, Gujarat, and Haryana, with reports indicating two seats in Gujarat, and one each in Haryana and Chandigarh, are part of the deal.

READ | After Delhi, AAP-Congress Seal Seat Deal For Goa, Haryana, Gujarat: Sources

The last-known position in each of these states was that in Gujarat – Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state – the AAP will contest two seats, the sole Lok Sabha seat in Chandigarh will go to the Congress, as will the South Goa seat, while the AAP will get at least one seat in Haryana.

Of these, the BJP swept Gujarat and Haryana in the last election, winning all 26 in the former and all 10 in the latter. In Goa, which has only two Lok Sabha seats, the BJP picked up North Goa and finished less than 10,000 votes behind the Congress’ Francisco Sardinha in South Goa.

Mr Modi’s party also won the Chandigarh seat; the Congress held this for three terms previously, with Pawan Kumar Bansal winning in 1999, 2004, and 2009. There was talk the AAP would insist on this seat.

The Congress-led INDIA has been busy this week – with just days for Lok Sabha election dates to be announced – wrapping up deals in Uttar Pradesh, closing in on an agreement in Maharashtra, and hoping for a revival of fortunes in Bengal.

READ | “Even With Binoculars…”: Trinamool Sources On Congress’ 5-Seat Demand

These accords have not, for now, changed the equation in Punjab, where the AAP is set to contest all 13 seats. That was confirmed by party boss and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal last week, who took a swipe at the Congress as he did so.

The UP deal – under which the Congress will contest 17 of the state’s 80 seats and Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (and regional allies) the other 63 – was INDIA’s first major seat-share contract, and came after Mr Yadav’s ‘ultimatum’ about his participation in the party’s ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’.

READ | INDIA Bloc’s UP Seat Sharing Pact Finalised, Congress To Fight On 17 Seats

Set up in June to defeat Mr Modi and the BJP, the INDIA bloc has already lost Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) – a founding member – and Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtra Lok Dal, which has influence among the Jat community in western UP. Both the JDU and the RLD have aligned with the BJP. 

Aware that further losses, or delays in sealing seat-share deals, will make it even harder to fight the BJP’s formidable election-winning machinery, the Congress has stepped up its negotiating efforts this week, with senior leaders – Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and Sonia Gandhi – all playing key roles.

READ | To Solve UP Seat-Sharing Deadlock, Sonia, Priyanka Gandhi Stepped In

Mr Gandhi has spoken to Shiv Sena (UBT) boss Uddhav Thackeray to complete talks in Maharashtra and Ms Gandhi Vadra ensured the deal with Akhilesh Yadav was struck. Sonia Gandhi may be called on to help settle a deal with Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, with whom she has a good relationship.

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.