AAP to contest all 90 seats, says Haryana party chief
What's the story
An alliance between the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress for next month's Haryana election seemed unlikely on Monday afternoon after AAP's state unit chief, Sushil Gupta, announced that his party will contest all 90 seats independently.
This statement came shortly after AAP released its first list of 20 candidates, including 11 competing for seats already claimed by Congress. Gupta mentioned that a second list would be "released soon."
Confidence expressed
AAP confident about contesting all 90 seats
He told NDTV, "AAP has made its decision... we have announced candidates for 20 seats, with a further list to come. We are confident about our outcome on all 90 seats..."
"We waited (for the alliance) because the organization (the Congress) is strong in every Assembly and that strong organisation wanted us to contest the election," Gupta said.
Alliance breakdown
Seat-sharing disagreements led to alliance breakdown
The AAP-Congress alliance, which had previously prevented the Bharatiya Janata Party from sweeping Haryana's 10 Lok Sabha seats in two consecutive elections, hit a roadblock over seat-sharing disagreements.
The AAP demanded 10 seats, but Congress was only willing to concede seven.
This was due to the AAP's failure to secure a win in Kurukshetra, a seat allotted to them in the general election which was won by the BJP.
Seat demands
AAP's demand for seats in Hooda's home turf
For the upcoming election, the AAP reportedly sought seats in the home territory of Congress leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
However, Hooda had plans to allocate these seats to his loyalists.
He also stated that he had not been in contact with AAP's state leaders since the general election and added that "the fight is between the BJP and Congress" in Haryana.
Strengthened position
Congress's position and AAP's internal discontent
The Congress's position in seat-sharing talks was bolstered by its performance in the Lok Sabha election and the signing of wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia.
Phogat will be contesting the Julana seat.
Meanwhile, there have been reports of dissatisfaction within the AAP, with three-time Malviya Nagar MLA Somnath Bharti suggesting that the party should "evaluate the effectiveness" of a similar alliance for Haryana following their defeat in the Lok Sabha election.