PUNJAB Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday said his party will not enter into an alliance with the Congress in the State for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, reiterating that the AAP will win all 13 seats. Mann’s statement comes on a day West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee announced that her party will not ally with the Congress for the parliamentary polls in that State. The AAP is part of the 28-party I.N.D.I.A. bloc along with the Congress, TMC and the CPI(M)-led Left Front.

 

The Punjab Chief Minister made the statement at a time the AAP and the Congress are locked in talks over seat sharing in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Goa and Gujarat for the general elections. However, the AAP has entered into an alliance with the Congress for the Chandigarh mayoral poll. Replying to a question on his party’s alliance with the Congress, Mann said he has said many times that “Punjab will become a hero in the country and the AAP will win 13-0 in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls”. Asked about the AAP’s alliance with the Congress for the Chandigarh mayoral poll and the chief minister saying that his party will win 13 seats in Punjab, Mann said, “Then you can make it 14,” indicating that the AAP could also contest the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat. When questioned if it was clear that the AAP will not have an electoral alliance with the Congress in Punjab, Mann said, “We are not going with them (Congress).” He further said discussions have already taken place on the AAP’s likely candidates and volunteers for Punjab’s 13 Lok Sabha seats and the names of 40 probables have come up.

 

“Three names came up from each constituency. There were four names from some constituencies and there is one name in Jalandhar (where the AAP’s Sushil Kumar Rinku is the MP). We have put up 40 names and will conduct surveys. We have kept winnabilty as the criterion (for fielding a candidate),” he told reporters after chairing a Cabinet meeting. Mann and several AAP leaders have been opposing any truck with the Congress for the Lok Sabha polls. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress won eight of Punjab’s 13 seats, the Shiromani Akali Dal and its erstwhile ally the BJP won two each while the AAP won one. After the AAP assumed power in 2022 and Mann became chief minister, the bypoll to his Sangrur Lok Sabha seat was won by Simranjit Singh Mann of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar). Rinku won the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat in a bypoll after it fell vacant following the January 2023 death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary.