CHANDIGARH: After Punjab Congress leaders on Tuesday rejected any alliance with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the state, chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday said his party knew how to fight elections alone and win them too.
Mann, speaking to reporters in Ludhiana, said AAP had fought alone and won 92 seats in Punjab in the 2022 assembly polls. He said his party had won in Delhi for a third time and fought alone in Gujarat and secured 13% votes.
AAP is the youngest to have become a national party, the CM said, adding: “We know forming governments and running them also.” The statement assumes significance as a complete U-turn from what senior AAP leader and finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema had announced in Patiala three days ago. Mann’s remarks came soon after his tourism minister, Anmol Gagan Maan, oppo- sed any tie-up with the main opposition party in the state.
She said this decision has been taken at the party level under the leadership of CM Mann. She also pointed out that the state Congress leaders faced many criinal cases. Questioned about the AAP leaders at the meetingsof the INDIA bloc, of which the Congress is also a part, the minister replied that the tie-up with INDIA is a national-level pact to oust the BJP from the Centre. “That alliance is a different aspect and not between the two parties ,” she added. The minister said: Punjab politics is different. When the people are ready to vote for us (AAP), we don’t need to enter an alliance with anyone. If we do (go with the Congress), people will not like to vote for us.”
She said everyone knew about the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll and Congress’ poor performance there. She underlined that therefore, AAP will contest all the Lok Sabha seats on its own as the people of Punjab appreciate CM Mann’s style of working.
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring reiterated on Wednesday that there were no instructions from the Congress high command about any alliance. “The party high command has not conveyed anyt- hing to us about possible alliance or seat sharing. The high command is supreme for us. They have only asked us to prepare for the elections on all 13 seats and finalise a list of candidates. We are actively playing the role of the opposition in the state,” he added. Echoing the AAP minister’s sentiments on the difference between state and central-level politics, Warring said: “The INDIA alliance is against the BJP and Narendra Modi. Otherwise, these parties have different ideologies and contest elections against each other.”
State’s leader of opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa claimed AAP was desperate to forma an alliance with Congress as its 2022 victory was a “political experiment that has failed terribly.”
He claimed, “Even after holding power for the past 18 months, AAP is desperate to ally with the Congress, while no Punjab Congress leader has issued a statement about contesting elections in an alliance with the AAP..”
Mann, speaking to reporters in Ludhiana, said AAP had fought alone and won 92 seats in Punjab in the 2022 assembly polls. He said his party had won in Delhi for a third time and fought alone in Gujarat and secured 13% votes.
AAP is the youngest to have become a national party, the CM said, adding: “We know forming governments and running them also.” The statement assumes significance as a complete U-turn from what senior AAP leader and finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema had announced in Patiala three days ago. Mann’s remarks came soon after his tourism minister, Anmol Gagan Maan, oppo- sed any tie-up with the main opposition party in the state.
She said this decision has been taken at the party level under the leadership of CM Mann. She also pointed out that the state Congress leaders faced many criinal cases. Questioned about the AAP leaders at the meetingsof the INDIA bloc, of which the Congress is also a part, the minister replied that the tie-up with INDIA is a national-level pact to oust the BJP from the Centre. “That alliance is a different aspect and not between the two parties ,” she added. The minister said: Punjab politics is different. When the people are ready to vote for us (AAP), we don’t need to enter an alliance with anyone. If we do (go with the Congress), people will not like to vote for us.”
She said everyone knew about the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll and Congress’ poor performance there. She underlined that therefore, AAP will contest all the Lok Sabha seats on its own as the people of Punjab appreciate CM Mann’s style of working.
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring reiterated on Wednesday that there were no instructions from the Congress high command about any alliance. “The party high command has not conveyed anyt- hing to us about possible alliance or seat sharing. The high command is supreme for us. They have only asked us to prepare for the elections on all 13 seats and finalise a list of candidates. We are actively playing the role of the opposition in the state,” he added. Echoing the AAP minister’s sentiments on the difference between state and central-level politics, Warring said: “The INDIA alliance is against the BJP and Narendra Modi. Otherwise, these parties have different ideologies and contest elections against each other.”
State’s leader of opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa claimed AAP was desperate to forma an alliance with Congress as its 2022 victory was a “political experiment that has failed terribly.”
He claimed, “Even after holding power for the past 18 months, AAP is desperate to ally with the Congress, while no Punjab Congress leader has issued a statement about contesting elections in an alliance with the AAP..”