The Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)—partners in the INDIA bloc—have reportedly sealed a seat-sharing agreement for the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and are expected to announce their tie-up soon.
According to sources, the Congress will contest in three seats, while the AAP will contest in four seats across the national capital after talks entered the final stages. Sources say that both sides have also agreed on the specific seats that each party will be contesting.
The AAP will field candidates from the South Delhi, West Delhi, North West Delhi and New Delhi seats, while the Congress will contest from the Chandni Chowk, East Delhi and North East Delhi constituencies, sources in the Aam Aadmi Party said.
This comes a day after the Congress and fellow INDIA bloc ally Samajwadi Party announced a seat-sharing deal for the Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
On Wednesday, AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that talks over the alliance had been delayed and hinted at fresh developments in the next one or two days.
Prior to that, the AAP had insisted that it planned on contesting six seats, offering a solitary seat to the Congress, following its political affairs committee meeting held on February 13.
Following the meeting, AAP's national general secretary (organisation), Sandeep Pathak had claimed that Congress did not even deserve one seat considering its performance in the previous polls in the national capital.
Criticising the delay in talks, Pathak had said they (AAP) had been waiting for more than a month for the seat-sharing talks to resume in Delhi but there has been no communication (from the Congress). He said if talks do not happen, they will announce the names of six candidates for Delhi in the next few days.
The AAP and the Congress have already announced that they will go solo in Punjab since their state leaders have been opposed to forging any alliance in the state.
"In Punjab, Congress and AAP have mutually agreed to contest the polls separately. There is no hostility over this," Kejriwal had said on Feb 18.
The success of the seat-sharing talks between the two is crucial, especially after the failure of such talks with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who had also decided to go solo in her state.
Notably, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, AAP's vote share was 18.1 percent, and it had bagged the third spot, while the Congress had polled 22.5 percent of the votes and was second on five of the seven Lok Sabha seats. The BJP had secured a vote share of 56.5 percent.
The Lok Sabha polls are likely to be held in April–May.
(With inputs from PTI, IANS and ANI)