Days after Mumbai meet, INDIA partners AAP, Cong reject tie-up in Punjab

Days after the Mumbai meeting of opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance bloc, leaders from the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress in Punjab opposed any possible tie-up between them for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Punjab Minister Anmol Gagan Mann on Wednesday said her Aam Aadmi Party will fight on all 13 parliamentary seats in the state.

She said this is the "direction" of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring too said the party is gearing up to fight on all seats in the state.

Both the parties are part of the INDIA that is preparing to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in 2024. But in Punjab, the Congress is the main rival to the AAP.

Warring said the state Congress unit is confident that the party's national leadership will not take any decision on Punjab "without our consent".

The state unit has not been told by the party high command about any tie-up or seat sharing in Punjab, he told reporters here. "We have been asked (by the party high command) to prepare for the 13 Lok Sabha seats," Warring said.

AAP leader Gagan Mann made it clear that there will be no alliance with the Congress in Punjab.

At the national level, many political parties have joined hands against the BJP to save democracy, she said but added that "in Punjab, we have the responsibility of the state… in Punjab, there will not be any kind of compromise. We will fight elections independently."

"We will not have any alliance with the Congress. The people of Punjab love Bhagwant Mann. Any kind of alliance with the Congress will not be tolerated. Several leaders (of the Congress) are facing (corruption) cases," the AAP leader told reporters in Chandigarh.

It is the direction of Chief Minister Mann that the AAP will not have any alliance with the Congress in the state, she said.

On September 1, the INDIA bloc in its Mumbai meeting resolved to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls together "as far as possible", asserting seat-sharing arrangements in states will be concluded at the earliest in a "collaborative spirit of give-and-take".

The coalition's leaders have also set up a 14-member coordination committee that will act as the highest decision-making body of the alliance and initiate work on seat sharing. They also exuded confidence that the new front would easily defeat the BJP.

Asked if the Congress high command decides to have an alliance in Punjab, Warring said, "The high command is the supreme authority. What the party high command says will happen."

"But we have full confidence that the party high command will not take any decision without our consent," asserted the Punjab Congress chief.

Asked whether the AAP's Punjab unit has conveyed its views to the party leadership, Gagan Mann said that "many parties, including the Congress, are part of the (INDIA) alliance. But in Punjab, politics is different. Here, we (AAP) can win 13 seats".

The AAP had won 92 of the 117 assembly seats in Punjab last year and people will again bless the party in the next elections, she said.

Gagan Mann's remarks are the first by an AAP leader in Punjab that makes it clear that the party does not want any electoral tie up with the Congress for the 2024 elections.

Congress leader Warring asserted that the Congress, which is the main opposition party in Punjab, has been forcefully raising issues concerning the people of the state.

Punjab Congress leaders even on Tuesday voiced strong reservations against any alliance with the AAP in the state for the next general elections.