The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is eyeing to contest at least half of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, mostly bordering Punjab.
This was stated on Wednesday by a senior Haryana AAP leader, two days after the party entered into talks with INDIA bloc partner Congress to finalise their tie-up ahead of the Lok Sabha poll.
However, the suggestion did not find favour with several leaders of the Congress, who on the condition of anonymity said their party may not be very keen on offering seats to AAP going by its poor performance in the last Lok Sabha poll.
Meanwhile, both parties are tight-lipped on seat sharing, with their leaders saying any discussion on it is yet to take place. The next meeting between both parties is likely to take place on Friday.
Earlier, the Congress leadership had insisted on going solo in the State. Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had recently said, “So far, there is no criteria fixed or parameters laid for seat sharing.”
However, the senior AAP leader, who did not want to be identified, said, “When the Congress could stake claim to Lok Sabha seats in AAP-ruled States of Delhi and Punjab, it must concede seats to us in Haryana, Goa and Gujarat, where it is in the Opposition.”
“As far as Haryana is concerned, we would prefer the constituencies of Sirsa, Kurukshetra and Ambala, bordering Punjab, and might consider contesting two more seats in the interior of the State, depending upon the agreement reached at the next meeting (between both parties),” the leader said.
In the last parliamentary poll, AAP had fared poorly in the three seats it contested in the State. Its candidates had lost deposits in Faridabad, Ambala and Karnal. They polled less than 50,000 votes put together despite the party contesting in alliance with the Jannayak Janta Party.
