Congress faces INDIA bloc dilemma in Haryana as alliance with AAP delays ahead of Oct 5 assembly polls

The Congress party’s push for an alliance with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the upcoming Haryana assembly polls has met with objections from the state leadership, especially from the camp headed by former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, according to reports.

The talks for arriving at a seat-sharing deal have thus been put on hold for now, the reports said. The Congress and AAP are INDIA bloc allies. 

The disagreement within the party over the proposed alliance has even resulted in Hooda, the Haryana Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, walking out of one of the party’s meetings, according to a report in Indian Express. The Congress camp in Haryana led by Hooda is reportedly unhappy with the All India Congress Committee (AICC) leadership’s plans to deny tickets to some the sitting party MLAs.

The Congress has 28 MLAs in the 90-member Haryana Assembly voting in a single phase on October 5.

Sources said Rahul Gandhi is keen on the alliance in Haryana. In fact, there have been two rounds of talks between AAP leader Raghav Chadha and Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal.

AAP wants ten seats while Congress has so far agreed to give it 7 seats.

Hooda is not yet on board on the alliance with AAP because the seats which the AAP is seeking include those from where he has his nominees. These seats include Pehowa, Kalayat and Jind.

The MLAs’, whose candidature has been put on hold, include Dharam Singh Chhoker from Samalkha, Surender Panwar from Sonipat and Rao Dan Singh from Mahendragarh, according to Indian Express report. These legislatures are said to be close to Hooda. Incidentally, all these MLAs have been facing various cases being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

It is perhaps because of this disagreement that there has been delay in the release of the first list of the party candidates despite party’s CEC having cleared names of about 66 names earlier this week.

A clarity on the proposed alliance with AAP will be after CEC meeting scheduled on Friday. When asked Congress spokesperson, Pawan Khera said the negotiations are on.

Congress party central command is reportedly wary of the rebellion in the BJP camp after the release of first list of candidates earlier this week. The saffron party has seen resignations, including by two ministers in the Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini cabinet, after their names didn't feature in the list of 67 names released by the party for the October 5 polls.