Congress and AAP announced a 3-4 split in favour of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s party in the national capital for Lok Sabha elections, lifting the suspense on seat-sharing between the two long-time mutually antagonistic constituents of the INDIA bloc.
Leaders of both parties came together in a show of strength to announce their decision to contest jointly as part of the alliance in Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Goa and Chandigarh. However, in Punjab, they will stick to their stance of contesting independently on all 13 seats.
As part of the deal in which Congress got the Delhi seats of its choice, AAP will contest in Bharuch and Bhavnagar in Gujarat and Kurukshetra in Haryana. Congress will be contesting the remaining 24 and 9 in Gujarat and Haryana, respectively. AAP MLAs from Gujarat, Chaitar Vasava and Umeshbhai Makwana will contest from Bharuch and Bhavnagar, respectively.
Gujarat and Haryana have been traditionally bipolar between Congress and BJP and ceding seats to AAP is a major concession from Congress, whose local outfits are unlikely to be happy with the accommodation of Kejriwal.
Cong, SP strike deal for 80 UP seats
Earlier, SP and Congress sealed a seat-sharing deal in UP with an MP sweetener to erase the aftertaste of their assembly poll spat. Congress settled for 17 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats on Akhilesh Yadav’s turf and spared MP’s Khajuraho constituency for SP in a poll quid pro quo that both sides declared was a sign of INDIA getting its act together.
SP, which had kicked off the poll season by releasing its first list of 16 candidates on Jan 31, withdrew from Varanasi, a seat Congress had been eyeing. Apart from Rae Ba-reli, Amethi and Varanasi, Congress will contest Kanpur, Fatehpur Sikri, Bansgaon, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Maharajganj, Amroha, Jhansi, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Sitapur, Barabanki and Deoria.
Cong, Sena UBT likely to contest 20 seats each
MPCC president Nana Patole said the MVA had almost finalised the seat sharing formula for the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state. “Despite defection by certain leaders, Maha Vikas Aghadi is united and intact. The outcome of the elections will be surprising, as we expect to win at least 38 seats,” Patole said. An NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) politician said the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) would contest 20 seats each and the NCP six, leaving two seats for the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi led by Prakash Ambedkar. Farmer leader Raju Shetti is likely to be accommodated within the Congress quota and contest from Hatkangale.