Amid AAP-Congress seats talk on LS polls, INDIA bloc breakthrough in Chandigarh

 

H S Lucky, the head of the Chandigarh Congress, announced that Kuldeep Kumar Tita, an AAP candidate, will run for mayor.
Chandigarh: On Monday, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) decided to run together in the forthcoming Chandigarh mayoral elections, marking a significant victory for the Opposition's INDIA alliance. Senior Congressman Pawan Kumar Bansal announced that the AAP will run for mayor, while his party will run for deputy mayor and senior deputy mayor positions.

Meeting between Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday in New Delhi

In recent times, the Congress and AAP, which are fierce political opponents in Delhi and Punjab, have been criticising each other due to the state branches of the parties' unwillingness to form an alliance ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Nonetheless, this month has seen an apparent attempt at reconciliation by the two parties' leaders, as evidenced by Saturday's meeting between AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

Bansal declared today, "This is the beginning of the end of the BJP's misrule in Chandigarh."

According to Chandigarh Congress president H S Lucky, Gurpreet Singh Gabi of his party and Nirmala Devi of the AAP would run for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, respectively, while Kuldeep Kumar Tita, the AAP's candidate, will run for mayor, according to PTI.

The Congress party's nominee for mayor, Jasbir Bunty, has decided to withdraw. Neha Musavat and Poonam, AAP candidates, would also not run for the remaining two positions.
On January 18, Chandigarh's mayoral elections are planned.
The BJP has 14 council members in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, which has 35 members. A voting ex-officio member MP is also a part of it.
There are 13 council members for the Aam Aadmi Party and 7 for the Congress. The newly formed coalition has a great chance to win if these 20 council members vote along party lines. Cross-voting is a possibility because the mayor is chosen by the council members by secret ballot, nevertheless.

There are several political adversaries among the 28 opposition parties that make up the INDIA bloc, which is a coalition against the BJP, creating internal conflicts.
Take West Bengal, for example. The two parties have been at odds ever since Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Choudhary claimed that the ruling TMC had only given his party two seats in the Lok Sabha elections.
In Kerala, too, the Congress and the CPI(M) are fierce political competitors, with the BJP attempting to make inroads. Congressman Shashi Tharoor said on Sunday that while it was nearly hard to form a coalition in the southern state, if the INDIA bloc was able to form agreements in several states, it would be possible to halt the BJP's onslaught.

"I continue to believe that the BJP will win the most seats overall. However, I think their numbers can be reduced to the point where, should they be needed to establish a government, their potential allies might be prepared to unite with us instead of them. Thus, we must give it a shot," he remarked.

"In Tamil Nadu, the CPI, CPI(M), Congress, and DMK are all allied together, and there is no debate or dispute. In Kerala, however, it is nearly impossible to imagine the two main opponents of the INDIA alliance, the CPI(M) and the Congress, ever agreeing on seat-sharing." They previously battled together in the previous election. They will probably fight this one as well," he continued.