Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring today alleged that there was a secret understanding between the Aam Aadmi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party. He claimed that the two parties had come together as both feared the Congress in both Punjab and Gujarat.
The PCC president in a statement, here today, dismissed the speculations about any factionalism in the party, which was being attributed as the cause of party’s loss in the Ludhiana West assembly by-election. “Congress did not lose due to any infighting, Congress lost because the AAP and the BJP got together against us”, he said, while suggesting that the BJP got substantial proportion of its votes transferred to the AAP candidate.
He pointed out, while the BJP’s vote share was reduced by half from what it got in the General Elections, just a year ago, conversely, the AAP’s vote share got doubled from what it got in those elections. Giving details, he said, the BJP vote share in 2024 General Elections in Ludhiana West was 41 percent, which came down to 22 percent this time.
The AAP vote share in 2024 was 20 percent, which went to 39 percent this time. Compared to that, the Congress vote share remained almost the same, as it was 28 percent in 2024, while this time it was 27 percent.
He said, the reasons were not lost on anyone as the BJP deliberately delayed the announcement of its candidate and did not even campaign properly. “Moreover, the close friendly bonds between a senior BJP leader from Punjab and a senior AAP leader are too well known”, he remarked without mentioning any names.
The PCC president claimed that not only in Punjab, even in Gujarat the BJP was propping up the AAP against the Congress. He said, the BJP deliberately fielded a newcomer against the AAP in Visavadar assembly constituency thus facilitating the AAP’s victory to help it grab the opposition space that is with the Congress.
On the speculations about infighting in the Congress, he asserted, “let me reaffirm and reiterate that Congress remains united and together. Mere difference of opinion does not mean we are divided”.
He said, in Ludhiana West senior leadership including former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and others worked day in and day out. Besides, he added, he personally was there off and on starting from the day of nominations itself.
He said, however, as the PCC president, he was supposed to carry out other party activities and programmes also, which had been chalked out by the AICC. These included ‘Save Constitution Meetings’ and reaching out to the grassroots level workers.
Alleging that the Congress was subjected to media trial, he asked, why the media was not raising the same questions to the Aam Aadmi Party as the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Arvind Kejriwal did not show up in the last few days and nor did they join the party’s final roadshow.
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