AAP, Congress’ ally in INDIA, has taken a strong note
Team News Riveting
New Delhi, August 16
The Congress party has hinted that it will contest all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in the 2024 general elections.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and party’s senior Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi held a marathon meeting with their senior colleagues in Delhi today. Sources said during the three-hour meeting, they broadly discussed strategies for the big fight in 2024.
After the meeting, Congress leader from Delhi Alka Lamba came out with a statement that stirred the political corridor in the national capital. She said the party had asked to prepare to contest in all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.
“We have been told how to prepare for the 2024 election. Before the Delhi meeting, the leadership has met our people in 18 states. It has been decided all Congress leaders will immediately go to work on the seven seats in Delhi to win them,” Ms Lamba told news agency ANI. “Seven months are left. All party workers have been asked to prepare for all seven seats,” she added.
The statement came under sharp criticism from the Aam Aadmi Party, a member of the newly formed opposition bloc INDIA in which Congress is also an ally.
“The Congress leader’s statement is very surprising. After such statements, what is the justification of the INDIA alliance? Arvind Kejriwal ji should decide on what to do next, which is important in the interest of the country. A decision should be taken,” AAP leader Vinay Mishra told NDTV.
Deepak Babaria, the Congress’s in-charge of Delhi, stepped in for damage control and said the comment was Ms Lamba’s personal opinion and no plan on seat-sharing was discussed in the meeting. “We did not discuss that issue in today’s meeting. The discussion was about how to strengthen the party in Delhi,” Babaria said.
Interestingly, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann are scheduled to visit Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to campaign for their party on August 19 and 20. The AAP will now have to clear its stand against whom it is going to contest as both the states witness bi-polar contest between the BJP and the Congress.
