LS polls: Talks for tie-up with Congress in Delhi 'much delayed', says Kejriwal
New Delhi, Feb 21: The talks between the AAP and the Congress over seat sharing in Delhi for Lok Sabha polls were "much delayed", Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday, amid claims by sources in both sides that the chances of an alliance have hit a roadblock.
On Tuesday, Kejriwal had said that talks for seat sharing in the national capital were in "final stages" and a tie up between the two parties would be announced soon.
There are seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi currently held by the BJP.
Sources in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) indicated that if the alliance did not happen with the Congress, the party could declare its candidates in the next few days.
When asked by reporters on the possibility of alliance with the Congress in Delhi, Kejriwal said, "It is much delayed, it should have happened much earlier. Let us see what happens in the next one-two days."
Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely said that the party is prepared for elections on all the seven constituencies in Delhi.
"The committee headed by Mukul Vasnik is continuously talking to the members of the INDIA bloc. It would not be appropriate for me to comment about that," he told reporters.
Sources said despite several rounds of talks between the leaders of two parties, an agreement over number of seats to be contested by them was yet to be agreed upon.
Congress sources claimed that the party wanted to contest four of the seven Lok Sabha seats and leave the rest for the AAP.
"This is justified as in the 2019 polls, the Congress candidates were runner-ups on six of the seven seats in Delhi while AAP candidates were on third place except for South Delhi constituency," said a senior Delhi Congress leader.
Although AAP leaders remained tight-lipped on seat sharing, sources in the party said, "The Aam Aadmi Party wants to contest four seats -- North East Delhi, West Delhi, South Delhi and North West Delhi."
The AAP earlier said it was holding talks with the INDIA bloc partners for a pact in Gujarat, Haryana, Delhi, and Goa. The party has already decided to go solo in Punjab.
AAP national general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak recently said that the party has demanded eight out of 26 Lok Sabha seats from the Congress in Gujarat.
He said that the AAP won five seats by polling a total 13 per cent votes in the last Assembly polls in Gujarat and claimed eight Lok Sabha seats in the state for the upcoming polls, while offering remaining 18 to the Congress.
He had also offered one Lok Sabha seat in Delhi to the Congress saying it did not deserve even that based on its previous election track record.
The Congress currently does not have any Lok Sabha MP or MLA from Delhi.
The AAP has so far unilaterally declared its candidates in two seats each in Gujarat and Assam and one in Goa.
Pathak had said that if a decision was not soon taken on seat-sharing in Delhi, his party would declare its candidates.
The BJP won all the seven seats in Delhi back to back in 2014 and 2019 elections. Interestingly, the BJP candidates in 2019 polled more votes than the combined tally of Congress and AAP candidates.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
