India News | Punjab: Sentiments of Congress Cadre Against Poll Alliance with AAP, Says Partap Bajwa

Chandigarh, Sep 6 (PTI) Punjab Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa Wednesday said the sentiments of party cadre in the state are against any alliance with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The sentiments of the party cadre are in favour of contesting the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections alone, said Bajwa in a statement.

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The leader of the opposition in Punjab Assembly said the Congress high command had given the freedom to the state unit to assess the mood of the people of Punjab, Congress cadre, and workers.

"The point of view of the Punjab Congress, including cadre and workers, is that we have no connection with the AAP in the state and will fight the upcoming general elections in 2024 on our own," Bajwa added. The Qadian legislator said that AAP's victory in the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections was a “political experiment that has failed terribly”.

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The people of Punjab want to get rid of AAP within 18 months of its regime, he claimed. "Even after getting hold of power in the state for the past 18 months, the AAP is desperate to form an alliance with the Congress. No Punjab Congress leader has ever issued a statement about contesting elections in an alliance with the AAP. It is only the AAP leadership that is making such statements because they have lost their ground in Punjab," Bajwa said. Earlier in the day, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said the state unit is confident that the party high command will not take any decision on an electoral tie-up with the AAP for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls without its consent. Warring reiterated that the national leadership has told the state unit to prepare for fighting all 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab. Punjab Congress leaders on Tuesday had voiced strong reservations against any alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the state for the next parliamentary elections, days after the last INDIA coalition meeting in Mumbai. Both the Congress and AAP are constituents of the 26-member opposition bloc.

On September 1, the INDIA bloc, in its Mumbai meeting, resolved to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls together "as far as possible", asserting seat-sharing arrangements in states will be concluded at the earliest in a "collaborative spirit of give-and-take". The opposition coalition leaders set up a 14-member coordination committee that will act as the highest decision-making body of the alliance and initiate work on seat sharing. It also exuded confidence that the new front would easily defeat the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Meanwhile, Warring Wednesday welcomed AAP's former Mohali district youth wing president Gurtej Singh Pannu into the party fold. Warring said, "I am pleased to welcome youth leader Gurtej Singh into the Congress party. The old workers who worked hard to build the party have been completely sidelined by the AAP now. The youth leaders are now forced to leave the AAP as the party has gone away from its original ideologies."

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)