The speculations of an Aam Aadmi Party and Congress alliance in Delhi may end soon as both the parties have decided to put an end to their differences to fight BJP in both the national capital as well as Haryana. Reports say that an alliance between the two political groups is most likely confirmed especially because both Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress leader PC Chacko were in favour of forging the alliance.
However, there may not be Congress-AAP alliance in Punjab as Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has expressed his opposition. Congress has reportedly agreed to amend its manifesto to include AAP's demand of granting full statehood to Delhi. There are also speculations that the manifesto will promise statehood to Delhi within six months.
The decision on seat-sharing between AAP and Congress in both Delhi and Haryana is likely to be taken soon, which poses a new danger to BJP in the northern states. BJP has been campaigning against the statehood to Delhi demand of AAP.
The decision on coalition came after several rounds of talks between AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and Congress's Chacko to iron out the differences between the two parties.
The only point of contention is the persistent opposition of former CM and senior Congress leader Sheila Dixit to any such alliance which is reportedly due to her rivalry with Arvind Kejriwal.
Dixit has been unequivocally saying that Congress will be fighting on its own in Delhi, but the back-channel talks between various opposition party leaders of trying to convince AAP and Congress to forge an alliance were going on for some time now.
During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP had routed both Congress and AAP winning all the seven seats from Delhi. AAP, however, emerged as the single largest party in Delhi Assembly elections of 2015 with BJP and Congress facing a massive defeat.
Notably, all the opposition parties are trying various seat-sharing formulas and other alliances to keep Narendra Modi-led BJP at bay. Although various opinion polls and surveys have given a thumping majority to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance with Modi as the Prime Minister.
The Delhi CM had recently said that all-out effort should be made by all the parties to defeat BJP and that talks were going on with Congress president Rahul Gandhi for a likely alliance.
