Sources indicate that AAP has demanded 10 seats from Congress during talks between party leader Raghav Chadha and KC Venugopal
Congress and AAP have started seat-sharing talks for the Haryana assembly polls, which could lead to a continuation of the alliance they had in the state during the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year.
The Congress has formed a three-member committee, which includes the party’s screening committee chairman for the state, Ajay Maken, AICC in-charge of Haryana Deepak Babaria and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, for seat-sharing talks with Aam Aadmi Party and Samajwadi Party. Party general secretary KC Venugopal will oversee the work of the committee.
Congress sources said that the party is willing to give 3-5 seats to AAP and one to the Samajwadi Party in Haryana, which has a 90-member assembly.
They said the discussions with AAP follow the suggestion of party leader Rahul Gandhi, who is the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha. The sources said that during the Congress Central Election Committee meeting, Rahul Gandhi discussed the possibilities of contesting elections as INDIA bloc and said that the party should make efforts to ensure that the votes of the alliance are not divided.
AAP MP Sanjay Singh later welcomed the suggestion and said that a final decision would be taken after consultations with party chief Arvind Kejriwal.
“We welcome it. Our priority is to defeat the BJP. Our Haryana in-charge Sandeep Pathak and Sushil Gupta will discuss it and take a final decision and inform Arvind Kejriwal about it, and a decision will be taken accordingly,” Sanjay Singh said.
Deepak Babaria told the media that talks with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) regarding the alliance are in the preliminary stage.
“We are exploring it. If there is any further development in the next 2-3 days, we will let you know,” he said.
Congress sources also said that the party has formed a sub-committee to take a decision on the pending seats in Haryana.
The panel includes Madhusudan Mistri, Ajay Maken and Deepak Babaria and will hold separate talks with the party’s three senior leaders in Haryana – Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Kumari Selja.
The meetings with the three leaders are expected to take place on Thursday.
Party sources said that about 24 seats are in the pending list, and no agreement could be reached on these in the meeting of the Central Election Committee.
AAP sources said that there have been talks with Congress. They said that the party has demanded 10 seats from Congress. They said talks have been held between party leader Raghav Chadha and KC Venugopal. (ANI)
BJP expected to list of candidates soon
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to release the first list of candidates for at least 50 seats on Wednesday in the run-up to the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections.
The party sources said that the first list of candidates is expected to be released tomorrow.
“We will release the first list tomorrow on maximum seats. Though discussion on all seats have been done but we will release the of list of around 50 candidates first and rest will be announced later,” the source said.
Earlier in the day, a key meeting was held at around 7.30 pm at former Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s residence in Delhi. The meeting was attended by BJP Haryana Election incharge Dharmendra Pradhan, election co-incharge Biplab Dev, State incharge Satish Punia, and state co-incharge Surender Nagar among others.
On September 2, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national President JP Nadda, BJP Haryana Election incharge Dharmendra Pradhan, election co-incharge Biplab Dev, State incharge Satish Punia, State Co-incharge Surender Nagar and Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar met and held talks regarding the candidates.
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