Chandigarh:

Aam Aadmi Party’s Bhagwant Mann took a roundhouse punch at the Congress on New Year’s Day, predicting the end of the party. “The shortest story a mother in Delhi or Punjab, can narrate to her child is ‘Ek thi Congress (there was a Congress)’,” the Punjab Chief Minister told reporters today.

Mr Mann’s swipe is seen as a blow to the Opposition bloc that is prepping to start seat-sharing talks ahead of the Lok Sabha elections due later this year.

It is being read as the Aam Aadmi Party’s unwillingness to share seats with the party in Delhi and Punjab, which together account for 21 Lok Sabha seats.

While the Congress has been thoroughly marginalised in both states, AAP’s showing in the 2019 general elections had not been sterling.

Though the party won four of the 13 seats in Punjab, it ended up losing them to factionalism and party-hopping. Mr Mann was the last MP, who quit his seat to become the Punjab Chief Minister. Gurmail Singh, the AAP candidate who was fielded from his Sangrur seat, lost.

In Delhi, AAP lost all eight seats to the BJP.

While the Opposition bloc INDIA is proceeding on the principle of one-on-one contest against the BJP, there is no consensus yet on what percentage of seats will be given to the Congress in states like Bengal, Delhi and Punjab, which are ruled by parties not known for their proximity to the Congress.

Last week, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had made it clear that the Trinamool Congress does not intend to share any of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats with the Congress.

“INDIA alliance will be there across the country. In Bengal, the Trinamool will fight and defeat the BJP. Remember, in Bengal, only Trinamool can teach a lesson to the BJP and not any other party,” Ms Banerjee said at a gathering in North 24 Parganas.

The Shiv Sena UBT, too, has signalled its unwillingness to share.

“This is Maharashtra, and Shiv Sena is the biggest party here. Congress is a national party. Uddhav Thackeray is having positive discussions with the decision-making leaders of Congress including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, and KC Venugopal,”senior party leader Sanjay Raut had said.  

“We have always said that Shiv Sena has always been fighting on 23 seats in the Lok Sabha elections including Dadra and Nagar Haveli and that will be firm,” he had added.