Ahead of Parliamentary polls, the Congress, the main opposition party which is in political exile for more than the last nine year in Haryana and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) jointly announced their pact for the forthcoming parliamentary polls in a bid to defeat the saffron Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP). Political analysts opine that through the newly formed alliance, the Congress and AAP are eyeing return to power as well as mark its debut victory in Haryana respectively. Deciding seat-sharing plans for upcoming Lok Sabha polls, both parties agreed to jointly contest in Haryana. Leaders of both parties hinted at working out joint campaigning in polls. Under the alliance, Congress has given Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat to AAP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections while Congress will field its candidate on the remaining 9 Lok Sabha seats under the alliance. Political analysts are of the opinion that the alliance between the two before the Lok Sabha election battle is certain to change the political scenario of the state.
It is noteworthy that just before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress heavyweight Naveen Jindal had refused to contest from Kurukshetra seat. Then Congress hurriedly fielded its former minister Nirmal Singh from Kurukshetra. Nirmal Singh could not survive the battle losing it to BJP’s state party president Naib Singh Saini with a huge margin of 384591 votes and remained in second position getting 3,03,622 votes then.
It is clearly evident from the previous two parliamentary polls held on Kurukshetra seat, it has been an uphill task for the Congress to have a strong candidate on the seat since 2014. Naveen Jindal has fought the battle unsuccessfully in 2104 remaining in third place with 287722 against 418112 and 288376 votes got by the BJP candidate Raj Kumar Saini and Indian National Lok Dal contestant (INLD) Balbir Saini. After the withdrawal of Naveen Jindal in the year 2019, Congress failed to field a strong contender in the polls for the Kurukshetra seat. Since, as part of the new pact, the AAP will contest the Kurukshetra seat, the same is a relief for Congress to some extent.
In continuation to aforesaid, it is noteworthy that AAP is still an entrant in the state politics as it has failed to win even a single assembly and parliamentary seat and through the forging this alliance with Congress, AAP is eyeing its debut victory in Haryana. Besides, In a short period of around two months Besides, the APP has has suffered a major setback in Haryana after the senior party leader and election campaign committee chairman Ashok Tanwar, resigned from the party, citing the “current political scenario” and “Arvind Kejriwal’s alignment” with the Indian National Congress”. Earlier, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has suffered a major setback in Haryana after the National Joint Secretary and former cabinet minister Nirmal Singh and his daughter Chitra Sarwara and party’s Haryana unit state vice president Chitra Sarwara resigned from the party on December 28 and joined the Congress on January 5 in presence of Congress National President Mallikarjun Khadge in Delhi.
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One of the congress bigwigs on anonymity said that the AAP had staked claim on three Lok Sabha seats including Kurukshetra, Ambala and Sirsa adjoining Punjab but no consensus could be reached between both parties as the Congress refused the same stating AAP is still an entrant in the state politics as it lacks electoral support in the state and count not contest even a single elections successfully. Since the AAP succeeded in forming Gove in Punjab, the party leaders were believing that the party would gain political mileage from the same in the Lok Sabha seats of Haryana bordering Punjab. But Congress out rightly rejected the same citing the weakened position of the AAP in Haryana. Among aforementioned Lok Sabha seats, It is pertinent to mention that Ambala and Sirsa seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste and in this series , after brainstorming on all aspects, Congress and AAP agreed on one seat instead of three seats. While reacting to the alliance between AAP and the Congress leading to new political developments in Haryana, Leader of Opposition and Congress heavyweight Bhupendra Singh Hooda said that being the supreme authority to take final call pertaining to any matter, the party high command had decided to contest in alliance. While reacting to the new development surfaced on February 25 in terms of alliance, Anurag Dhanda who holds the portfolio of state vice president of the AAP said that the ruling BJP has left no stone unturned to violate the constitution making misuse of government machinery.