Haryana polls: AAP steps up pressure on Cong, says will announce all 90 candidates by evening

New Delhi, Sep 9 (PTI) Stepping up pressure on the Congress for an alliance in the upcoming Haryana Assembly polls, the AAP’s state unit chief Sushil Gupta said on Monday that his party will release the names of candidates from all the 90 seats if the deal is not finalised by the evening.

The last date for filing nominations for the Haryana election is September 12. Polling is scheduled to be held on October 5.

The talks between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have been stuck over the number of seats to be contested by the latter, with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party demanding 10 seats and the Congress offering five, sources in the AAP said.

Gupta told PTI Videos that every AAP worker in Haryana is ready to strongly contest all the 90 Assembly seats.

“We will release the list of candidates for the 90 seats by the evening,” he said when asked about the Congress’s reply to the AAP regarding an alliance.

Gupta said the AAP has been waiting for a response from the grand old party but nothing has come so far.

Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh said party leaders, including Gupta and general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak, have already said that the process of candidate finalisation has been completed and as soon as an approval comes from Kejriwal, the national convenor of the party, it will contest the election.

Singh echoed Gupta and said as the last date for filing nominations is September 12, there is not much time left.

AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha, who has been holding talks with Congress leaders over a prospective alliance, said on Sunday that both parties are trying to form a coalition for the Haryana polls, keeping aside their individual aspirations.

Chadha said while the parties are yet to reach a consensus on an alliance, the talks are progressing in a “positive” direction and they are hopeful of a good outcome.

He, however, added that the AAP will not proceed with an alliance “if there is no win-win situation”.

Gupta asserted that the AAP is “fully capable” of uprooting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Haryana.