Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Thursday that there is no scope for an alliance between his party and the Aam Aadmi Party for the Assembly polls in Haryana and Delhi, but that the Opposition INDIA bloc will contest elections together in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, PTI reported.
In the Lok Sabha elections, the Aam Aadmi Party and its INDIA bloc partner the Congress had contested all seven seats of the national capital in an alliance.
The Congress fielded its candidates from Northeast Delhi, Northwest Delhi and Chandni Chowk constituencies. The Aam Aadmi Party fought the polls from the West Delhi, South Delhi, East Delhi and the New Delhi constituencies.
However, the alliance failed to win any seat in Delhi and the Bharatiya Janata Party won all seven constituencies.
“There is no INDIA bloc in Punjab [where AAP is in power],” Ramesh told PTI. “In Haryana, we had given one seat to the Aam Aadmi Party in the Lok Sabha polls but I don’t think that INDIA bloc will be there for the Assembly polls. In Delhi, the AAP itself has said that INDIA bloc will not be there for the Assembly polls.”
On June 6, Aam Aadmi Party’s Delhi unit convener Gopal Rai had said that his party’s alliance with the Congress was only for the Lok Sabha elections.
On Thursday, Ramesh said that even in West Bengal, the INDIA bloc alliance was only for the Lok Sabha polls, reported PTI.
“In Maharashtra, the alliance will be there with Shiv Sena [Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray] and Nationalist Congress Party [Sharadchandra Pawar],” the Rajya Sabha MP told news agency. “In Jharkhand, we have an alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.”
Assembly polls are due in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana later this year. Elections for the Delhi Assembly will be held early next year.
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