Chandigarh, Sep 6: Days after the Mumbai meeting of opposition INDIA bloc, leaders from the AAP 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 (AAP) 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 Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) that is preparing to take on the BJP-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 here.
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”. 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. (PTI)
