In a joint announcement on Saturday, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress revealed a formalized seat-sharing arrangement for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Delhi. According to the agreement between the two partners within the INDIA bloc, AAP will vie for four out of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, while Congress will contest the remaining three.
Under this pact, Congress will field candidates in North East, Chandni Chowk, and North West, while AAP will present candidates in New Delhi, East Delhi, West Delhi, and South Delhi, as outlined by Congress general secretary and MP Mukul Wasnik during a press conference held in the national capital.
The collaboration extends beyond Delhi, encompassing seat-sharing agreements in Gujarat, Haryana, Chandigarh, and Goa. AAP is set to contest two seats in Gujarat (Bharuch and Bhavnagar), one seat in Haryana (Kurukshetra), and Congress will vie for the lone seat in Chandigarh, as well as both seats in Goa.
Representatives from AAP, including Rajya Sabha member Sandeep Pathak and ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj and Atishi, participated in the joint press conference. This marks the first alliance between the political rivals in Delhi and Punjab, contributing to the larger INDIA coalition’s efforts to challenge the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The INDIA bloc, comprising key opposition parties, was formed with the objective of jointly contesting the upcoming elections. Notably, this alliance faced challenges over the past eight months, with the most significant setback being the defection of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his party Janata Dal (United) to the NDA. The seat-sharing arrangement between the Congress and Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in December marked a significant step for the coalition. The BJP secured all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi during the 2014 and 2019 general elections, with the Congress and AAP being the primary contenders in various constituencies.
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