The Congress is unlikely to give up the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat to the Aam Admi Party (AAP) as part of a seat-sharing pact, Congress sources said on Friday.
The party asserted however that seat-sharing talks with all partners including the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Bengal are underway. “Talks with [West Bengal Chief Minister] Mamata Banerjee are continuing, but the alliance has not been given its final shape,” Mr. Ramesh told reporters at AICC.
On Thursday, The Hindu, reported that talks between the Congress and TMC had revived and discussions with other allies too had picked up.
“Alliance talks with the Aam Aadmi Party too are in the final stages and will be announced shortly,” he added, without specifying a timeline for the formal announcement.
Ahmed Patel’s seat
A Congress leader, who is part of the panel on alliances, said discussions with the AAP for the 7 seats in Delhi are complete but a solution is required for one seat that it has demanded in Gujarat.
Apart from Bhavnagar, AAP wants the Bharuch seat that was once represented by late Ahmed Patel, political secretary to former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
Mr. Patel entered the Lok Sabha in 1977 after winning the Bharuch seat and continued to represent it until 1989.
“Given the history of the seat, Rahul [Gandhi] ji is not willing to give away the seat. We will have to work out an amicable solution with AAP,” said the leader.
Mr. Gandhi who has for the most part not been involved in seat-sharing talks because of his preoccupation with the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, also stepped in to iron out differences with allies in Maharashtra. He is said to have spoken to former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to work out differences.
