Eying 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress has begun its negotiations with different political parties of the INDIA bloc. In the streak, the leaders of the grand old party will today meet their Aam Aadmi party counterparts to decide on contesting seats in Delhi and Punjab. Reacting to the development, AAP leader and MP Sandeep Pathak, who is representing his party in the talks, said that not just in Delhi but there will be discussion in all those states where the Aam Aadmi Party has elected representatives and organisations.
"Discussion will be held over all the important, critical states where we have elected representatives and organisational strength," he said.
Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit said they have issues with the AAP at the state level and there was no contention at the national level (where alliance has been formed). He said whatever the party's high command decides, it should be done at the earliest so that the state unit could prepare for the election. "Our national leadership knows our opinion. Our conflicts with AAP are with respect to the Delhi government. It will be decided later if there will be an alliance, if it happens then who'll contest which seats? I just hope that if an alliance happens then its details should be decided as soon as possible so that we can also prepare for it,” Dikshit said while talking to ANI.
Congress- RJD meeting on seat sharing:
A meeting of the Congress and RJD was held on Sunday to discuss the seat-sharing formula within the INDIA bloc in Bihar. RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha participated in the meeting and held deliberations with Congress’ Mukul Wasnik over seat allocation. As per sources, Congress has handed over a list of 10 seats it wishes to contest in Bihar. It is also being said that Nitish-led JDU will not directly negotiate with Congress and RJD will act as a deal-breaker. RJD will now discuss with JDU on seats claimed by the Congress.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said the alliance would meet in 10-15 days to make key decisions. The statement hasn’t gone down well with JDU as it claimed they were running out of time and the decision over seat allocations and key posts in the bloc must be made on an urgent basis.