The Congress has decided that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is part of I.ND.I.A alliance, should not be given a single Lok Sabha seat to contest in Haryana, according to sources. The party will field its candidates on all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
The party has set some parameters regarding seat sharing in the alliance and on the basis of that has decided to keep all the 10 Lok Sabha seats of Haryana with itself, sources said.
More than 28 political parties are part of I.ND.I.A bloc and they are in various stages of talks to fight BJP united candidates across the country with. AAP is also included in the alliance.
Sources said among the parameters set for sheet sharing, the most important is the performance of parties in 2019 Lok Sabha election. Congress has decided the Lok Sabha seats where its own candidates stood second in 2019 will not be given to any party. Congress will field its candidates on all such seats.
BJP had won all 10 seats of Haryana in the 2019 and Congress candidates were at second place everywhere.
In the meeting of the National Alliance Committee of the Congress, the party leaders have made it clear that the Congress will field its candidates on all the 20 seats in the North East and Union Territories. Congress has also said that it will field its candidates on all the seats of Haryana, Himachal, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Rajasthan. The party has made it clear that none of the 22 seats in Telangana and Uttarakhand will be given to any party.
In the meeting of All India Congress Committee (AICC), there was talk of seat sharing with the parties included in I.N.D.I.A Alliance in UP, Delhi, Punjab, Bihar, Bengal, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The matter of seat sharing is expected to be finalized before January 14. Senior leader and former party president Rahul Gandhi will start his Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra from January 14. This journey will start from Manipur and will cover a distance of 6700 kilometers through 15 states and will end in Maharashtra.
Congress has formed five screening committees to shortlist its potential candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. The responsibility of the committee formed for Haryana has been given to Bhakta Charandas. Bhakta Charandas is currently the spokesperson and general secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).
He has also been made the chairman of the screening committee for Haryana as well as for UP, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh cluster. Along with him, party leaders Neeraj Dangi and Yashomati Thakur will be included as members in this committee.