On 17th December, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s chief and Delhi’s Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, expressed his desire to contest all thirteen Lok Sabha seats in Punjab and one Lok Sabha seat in Chandigarh in the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections. Notably, AAP is part of I.N.D.I. Alliance with eighteen other anti-BJP parties, including Congress, Trinamool Congress, Janata Dal (United) and others.
During a public meeting in Bathinda, Punjab, with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Arvind Kejriwal 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] government three times in Delhi, you will give a majority vote to AAP in the next elections. 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.”
This is not the first time Congress and AAP have come face-to-face over seat sharing in Punjab. On 12th December, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said that his party would contest all 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab. Furthermore, he added that the high command had not given any instructions for contesting the upcoming General elections in any alliance.
On 14th December, 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.”
I.N.D.I Alliance meeting scheduled for 19th December
Notably, Kejriwal’s statement came just two days before the I.N.D.I Alliance meeting that is scheduled for 19th December. This is going to be the first meeting of the alliance after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) defeated Congress in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh assembly elections. Following the defeat, Congress called for a meeting of its allies, which was first scheduled for the 6th of this month, before getting postponed to the 19th.