INDI Alliance in trouble in Punjab? AAP, Cong to contest all 13 seats individually in LS elections

Days after the Indian National Congress declared that the party will be contesting all 13 seats in Punjab, its Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I. Alliance) partner Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also said that it will contest each of its 13 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections in 2024.

AAP is part of the I.N.D.I. Alliance with Congress and 17 other parties which have an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stance, including the Janata Dal (United) and the Trinamool Congress.

AAP to contest all 13 seats in Punjab in Lok Sabha Elections 2024

On December 17, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal said his party wished to contest all 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab and one Lok Sabha seat in Chandigarh in the Lok Sabha Elections in May 2024.

Arvind Kejriwal was speaking at a public meeting in Bathinda with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, when he said, “All these parties are sad. They feel that their jobs have been taken away permanently. No one is going to vote for them again. The way (AAP formed) the government three times in Delhi, you will give a majority vote to AAP in the next elections.”

“(The) Lok Sabha elections are not far away. There are 13 seats in Punjab and one seat in Chandigarh. My heart says the way people are getting benefitted; you should give all 13 seats to us and make us strong,” Kejriwal added.

On December 14, AAP chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said, “While the party high command’s final decision is to be taken, we are already preparing in all 13 Lok Sabha constituencies. The Chief Minister had declared in the Hoshiarpur rally that we will contest in all 13 seats.”

Congress to contest all 13 seats in Punjab

The AAP declaration comes days after the announcement by Punjab Congress state unit president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, who said that the Congress high command has asked the party to fight all 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

“There is a message from the party high command that you make preparations for contesting all 13 seats,” Warring said, as reported in PTI. 

“I want to say that the high command, which means (Congress president Mallikarjun) Kharge sahib, if any message comes then it will come to me being the PPCC president. Such a message that you fight elections jointly or enter any alliance has not been given till now. If the high command gives any indication, then I will disclose it. Ultimately whatever the high command says, it will happen,” he said.

I.N.D.I Alliance meeting on December 19

As per reports, an I.N.D.I Alliance meeting is scheduled for December 19. It will be the first meeting of the Alliance after the BJP was victorious over the Congress in the states of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh in the recently held assembly elections. The meeting was earlier to be held on December 6 but was postponed to December 19.