Congress and the AAP are not going to ally in the forthcoming general elections in Haryana and Delhi, according to AICC’s Secretary General Jairam Ramesh.
On Thursday, Ramesh said that Indian group would run together in Maharashtra and Jharkhand but it does not mean that they will contest other states’ elections as such.
Jairam Ramesh told the Press Trust of India (PTI) that Bloc India is not a “silver bullet” for state polls.
Thus, instead our group will be consulting with congressional leaders as well as alliance partners who support this approach. Further on, while giving his opinion about future assembly polls by the alliance, Ramesh pointed out specifically that the coalition has already agreed to work together in Maharashtra negotiations and Jharkhand.
“There is no ‘janbandhan’ in Punjab. We gave them one seat in Haryana at Lok Sabha level, but I don’t think we’ll contest assembly elections there. In Delhi also they themselves have said publicly that they will not be participating,” he added.
Congress and AAP joined hands for Lok Sabha election only at Delhi’s level while separately contesting for Punjab during previous electoral tie-ups. While talking about what lies ahead of us tomorrow, Ramesh spoke about different states’ dynamics.
“Also within West Bengal context I mention Indian bloc which was form for Lok Sabha polls but we may still go on if our national leadership or our allies want,” clarified Jairam Ramesh. The Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SCP), on their part will enter into an alliance with Maharastra; however this time around UBT is planning to unite itself with political parties including BJP which are currently against NCP.
Ramesh emphasized: it should be flexible formula rather than rigid prescription by Congress leaders with respective alliance parties agreeing on alliances formation particularly since we were moving toward assembly polls from here onwards. He retorted that he had spoken about the Haryana and Delhi polls.
Jairam Ramesh also repeated, “There is no room in Delhi and Haryana.”
Jharkhand, Haryana, and Maharashtra are going to hold elections later this year while Assembly elections will be held in Delhi early next year.
