New Delhi: Congress have formally announced the end of their uneasy and unsuccessful alliance. Arvind Kejriwalof the Aam Aadmi Party. Both the parties had joined hands for the 2009 general elections. Lok Sabha Elections Was part of the opposition movement in Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat and Goa. India BlockNow both the parties will be rivals of each other in the upcoming assembly elections.
He said, “There does not seem to be much scope for an alliance between the Congress and the BJP.” AAP Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said, “We will not form an alliance for the assembly elections in Haryana and Delhi but will contest in Maharashtra and Jharkhand with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).” AAP had announced a month ago that it will not form an alliance with the grand old party in the assembly elections.
Haryana face to face
The first impact of this political alienation will be seen in Haryana, where elections are due later this year. After a stellar performance in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress is upbeat about its prospects in the state elections. The grand old party, which could not even open its account in 2019, won five of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state with a vote share of 43.67%. The Congress managed to dent the Congress in the state badly. BJPDespite a change in state leadership and a higher voteshare of 46.1%, it could win only 5 seats – half its 2019 tally. Kejriwal’s AAP, with a 3.94% voteshare, had finished third in the state in the national elections.
In the 2019 assembly elections, the Congress performed brilliantly by winning 31 out of 90 seats with a vote share of 28.08%. This was more than double the 15 assembly seats it won in 2014. On the other hand, the BJP could not secure a majority on its own and managed to win only 40 assembly seats with a vote share of 36.49%. The BJP had won 47 seats in the 2014 assembly elections. The Aam Aadmi Party did not win any seat in 2019 and managed to get only .48% vote share in the state.
The Congress, which has seen its performance improve in the state since the last assembly elections, is perhaps confident of further gains and does not want to accommodate Kejriwal’s party. The Aam Aadmi Party’s Haryana unit has already drawn up a 90-day roadmap for aggressively campaigning for the party’s achievements in Punjab and Delhi in all 90 constituencies of the state. The BJP, on the other hand, is hoping that a divided opposition in the upcoming assembly elections will help it regain some lost ground.
Failed experiments
The Congress-AAP alliance was short-lived and failed to make much of an impact in the Lok Sabha elections. The two parties could not even open their account in Delhi. They could not stop the BJP from making a clean sweep for the third time in a row, winning all seven seats in the national capital. The Congress formed the alliance despite strong opposition from its state leaders and in the process lost some seats to the BJP. In other states too where the two parties contested together, they did not gain much. In contrast, in Punjab where the two parties decided to contest as rivals, the Congress won 7 out of 13 seats and the AAP won 3 seats. This is despite the fact that the AAP is in power in Punjab and its Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had always claimed that it would wipe out the Congress in the state.
First Mamata, now Kejriwal
For the Congress, strong regional leaders present both opportunities and challenges. In the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress allied with leaders like Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh, MK Stalin in Tamil Nadu, Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar and Hemant Soren in Jharkhand. However, in West Bengal, the grand old party failed to join hands with Mamata Banerjee. In fact, the two parties openly fought a war of words during the elections. Mamata contested alone and not only defeated the BJP but also decimated the Congress. Kejriwal will be the second prominent leader of the India Block with whom the Congress has now refused to ally. Both the Congress and the AAP, which has the status of a national party, have a lot at stake in the assembly elections and they feel that contesting alone will be more beneficial for them.
No all-India formula for Bharat Block
The Congress today clarified that alliances in states under the banner of Bharat Abhiyan will be on a case-by-case basis and there will be no single formula for alliances. Where the state Congress leaders and the respective alliance parties agree, there will be alliances, the grand old party said, outlining its principle of future alliances. “In states where the circumstances are such that our state leaders and the leaders of our alliance partners want, there will be alliances. In Maharashtra, there will be alliances with the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SCP). In Jharkhand, we have an alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha,” Jairam Ramesh said.
United at the center, divided into states
The internal contradictions of the India Bloc are already visible in states like West Bengal, Kerala and Punjab – where the Congress is the political rival of its national alliance partners. In all these states, the India Bloc partners have attacked and targeted each other – benefiting the BJP, which has always called the India Bloc an opportunistic alliance.
He said, “There does not seem to be much scope for an alliance between the Congress and the BJP.” AAP Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said, “We will not form an alliance for the assembly elections in Haryana and Delhi but will contest in Maharashtra and Jharkhand with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).” AAP had announced a month ago that it will not form an alliance with the grand old party in the assembly elections.
Haryana face to face
The first impact of this political alienation will be seen in Haryana, where elections are due later this year. After a stellar performance in the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress is upbeat about its prospects in the state elections. The grand old party, which could not even open its account in 2019, won five of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state with a vote share of 43.67%. The Congress managed to dent the Congress in the state badly. BJPDespite a change in state leadership and a higher voteshare of 46.1%, it could win only 5 seats – half its 2019 tally. Kejriwal’s AAP, with a 3.94% voteshare, had finished third in the state in the national elections.
In the 2019 assembly elections, the Congress performed brilliantly by winning 31 out of 90 seats with a vote share of 28.08%. This was more than double the 15 assembly seats it won in 2014. On the other hand, the BJP could not secure a majority on its own and managed to win only 40 assembly seats with a vote share of 36.49%. The BJP had won 47 seats in the 2014 assembly elections. The Aam Aadmi Party did not win any seat in 2019 and managed to get only .48% vote share in the state.
The Congress, which has seen its performance improve in the state since the last assembly elections, is perhaps confident of further gains and does not want to accommodate Kejriwal’s party. The Aam Aadmi Party’s Haryana unit has already drawn up a 90-day roadmap for aggressively campaigning for the party’s achievements in Punjab and Delhi in all 90 constituencies of the state. The BJP, on the other hand, is hoping that a divided opposition in the upcoming assembly elections will help it regain some lost ground.
Failed experiments
The Congress-AAP alliance was short-lived and failed to make much of an impact in the Lok Sabha elections. The two parties could not even open their account in Delhi. They could not stop the BJP from making a clean sweep for the third time in a row, winning all seven seats in the national capital. The Congress formed the alliance despite strong opposition from its state leaders and in the process lost some seats to the BJP. In other states too where the two parties contested together, they did not gain much. In contrast, in Punjab where the two parties decided to contest as rivals, the Congress won 7 out of 13 seats and the AAP won 3 seats. This is despite the fact that the AAP is in power in Punjab and its Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had always claimed that it would wipe out the Congress in the state.
First Mamata, now Kejriwal
For the Congress, strong regional leaders present both opportunities and challenges. In the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress allied with leaders like Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh, MK Stalin in Tamil Nadu, Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar and Hemant Soren in Jharkhand. However, in West Bengal, the grand old party failed to join hands with Mamata Banerjee. In fact, the two parties openly fought a war of words during the elections. Mamata contested alone and not only defeated the BJP but also decimated the Congress. Kejriwal will be the second prominent leader of the India Block with whom the Congress has now refused to ally. Both the Congress and the AAP, which has the status of a national party, have a lot at stake in the assembly elections and they feel that contesting alone will be more beneficial for them.
No all-India formula for Bharat Block
The Congress today clarified that alliances in states under the banner of Bharat Abhiyan will be on a case-by-case basis and there will be no single formula for alliances. Where the state Congress leaders and the respective alliance parties agree, there will be alliances, the grand old party said, outlining its principle of future alliances. “In states where the circumstances are such that our state leaders and the leaders of our alliance partners want, there will be alliances. In Maharashtra, there will be alliances with the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SCP). In Jharkhand, we have an alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha,” Jairam Ramesh said.
United at the center, divided into states
The internal contradictions of the India Bloc are already visible in states like West Bengal, Kerala and Punjab – where the Congress is the political rival of its national alliance partners. In all these states, the India Bloc partners have attacked and targeted each other – benefiting the BJP, which has always called the India Bloc an opportunistic alliance.
