What could be the first indication of the failure of a poll alliance between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress, the former, released its first list of 20 candidates for the upcoming elections in Haryana on Monday.
This comes amid days of hectic parleys between the two parties over seat-sharing arrangements. While the alliance seemed nearly sealed on Saturday, the delay from Congress in final confirmation led to an impasse, irking the AAP which had threatened to release the names of all 90 candidates if no final word is received from the grand old party till Monday evening.
“We have not received any information from the Congress on the seat-sharing alliance in Haryana. We are ready to contest all 90 seats in the upcoming state polls if a decision regarding alliance with the Congress was not made by today evening,” said AAP’s Haryana chief Sushil Gupta.
Earlier AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh had also voiced concerns over delay in confirmation and had said that the party is fully prepared to go solo in Haryana. “The last date for filing nominations is September 12 and there is little time left. Our process of picking candidates for the Haryana elections is done,” he had said.
At about 3.30 p.m. on Monday, the AAP announced the names for 20 assembly segments in its first list that included key constituencies of Rohtak, Bahadurgarh, Mahendragarh, Sohna, Ballabgarh and Samalkha in poll-bound Haryana.
“We waited for a long time to receive any inputs from the Congress. However, with no confirmation in sight, we decided to release the first list.
The remaining names are expected to follow soon,” said sources in the AAP. “Although the talks are still on between the two parties, there is very little chance that any positive development concerning an alliance in Haryana will now materialize.”
Haryana will go to polls on October 5 and the results will be announced on October 8.
