Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday took a jibe at the Congress losing ground in Delhi and Punjab comparing the party’s existence in the two states to the “shortest story a mother can tell her kids”.
“…The shortest story a mother in Delhi or Punjab, can narrate to her child is ‘Ek thi Congress’…” Mann said while addressing reporters.
Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ousted Congress from governments in Delhi in the 2013 and 2015 Assembly polls and Punjab in the 2022 elections. Congress, which ruled Delhi for 15 years, has no MLA in the 70-member Delhi assembly at present. In the 2022 Punjab polls, the AAP registered a landslide victory and decimated Congress to just 18 seats in the 117-member assembly.
There are speculations about the Congress-AAP alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. However, nothing has been finalised as of now.
Both Punjab and Delhi units of Congress have expressed their displeasure about the tie-up and conveyed to the party high command that they don’t want any alliance with the Kejriwal-led party.
In October 2023, the Leader of the Opposition in Punjab and senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa told News18 in an interview that an alliance with the AAP in Punjab for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be like signing the “death warrant” for the Congress in the state. “And we do not want to demolish the Congress,” he said.
Bajwa went on to say the AAP government in the state would soon be toppled by the Congress. “If we get 10-11 seats in the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab (there are 13 seats), we can topple the AAP government. Many AAP MLAs are in touch with us. Whenever we get a chance, we will topple them. If most MLAs of AAP want to come over and don’t want to stay with them, what can I do? Who can save a failed marriage?” Bajwa told News18.
Bajwa further said AAP’s performance in Punjab could be held akin to the famous Urdu couplet, “Har shaakh pe ullu baitha hai, anjame gulistan kya hoga”, and argued that the sooner the AAP government goes, the better it will be for Punjab.
In September 2023, Punjab Congress leaders vehemently opposed any move to forge a tie-up With AAP for the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state. There are a total 13 parliamentary seats in Punjab, besides Chandigarh. Currently, the Congress has six members of Parliament (MP) from Punjab.
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