New Delhi: The Congress is confident of reducing the BJP’s tally significantly in three northern states Delhi, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh the saffron party swept in 2019. The three states together send 21 seats to the Lok Sabha, including Delhi seven, Haryana 10 and Himachal Pradesh four. Polling on these 21 seats will be held over the last two remaining phases on May 25 and June 1 respectively. A good show by the Congress in these states will have an impact on the overall result, said party insiders.
While the Congress is banking on its alliance with AAP to snatch seats from the saffron party in Delhi, the grand old party plans to capitalise on infighting in the Haryana BJP and public anger against the ruling party in the state. In Himachal Pradesh, the grand old party is hopeful that its Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu will deliver parliamentary seats.
The INDIA bloc cooperation is more visible on the ground in Delhi where senior leaders from both parties campaigned for each other’s candidates, four of AAP and three of Congress over the past few days. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal campaigned for all three Congress nominees JP Agarwal in Chandni Chowk, Udit Raj in North West and Kanhaiya Kumar in North East while former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi appealed for all seven candidates recently. Separately, Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav and senior leader Sachin Pilot campaigned for AAP candidates.
In Haryana, former Chief Minister BS Hooda and Rajya Sabha member Randeep Surjewala campaigned for the only AAP nominee in Kurukshetra Sushil Gupta while on the remaining 9 seats Congress top leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge campaigned extensively.
“We are confident the alliance will do very well in Delhi and Haryana,” AICC in-charge of Delhi and Haryana Dipak Babaria told ETV Bharat. Party insiders said the sympathy factor over the arrest of Kejriwal, public anger over unemployment and price rise and the combined 40 per cent vote share of the Congress and AAP in Delhi had made them hopeful of a win in 2024.
“The BJP recently changed its chief minister in Haryana but the state government is now in the minority. There is infighting in the state BJP. Besides, people feel nothing has been done for them over the past 10 years. All this is going in our favour,” said Babaria. According to Sirsa candidate Kumari Selja, the Congress was in a position to win 8-10 seats in Haryana this time.
Party insiders said there had been concerns over unity among the factions in the Haryana Congress but on May 22, Hooda, state unit chief Uday Bhan and Kiran Chaudhary shared the stage in the presence of Rahul Gandhi who campaigned for candidate Rao Dan Singh. Kiran was a strong aspirant from the seat. Later, Hooda assured Rahul that he would win a significant number of seats for the party.
In Himachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Sukhu has campaigned extensively for all four party candidates Vikramaditya Singh in Mandi, Anand Sharma in Kangra, Satpal Singh Raizada in Hamirpur and Vinod Sultanpuri in Shimla and has urged the people to teach a lesson to the BJP that recently tried to topple his government by poaching six party MLAs during the Rajya Sabha elections. On May 22, Sachin Pilot also campaigned in Mandi. “Our campaign is strong. We will win all four seats,” state minister Rajesh Dharmani told ETV Bharat.
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