Cong wants AAP to returnfavour, support Tewari now

Chandigarh: With the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) yet to “deliver” on its promised support during the election campaign of the Congress’ Lok Sabha candidate, the party’s straight-talking leadership has asked its alliance partner to reciprocate the support lent to it during the mayoral polls in Chandigarh.
A senior Congress leader, who didn’t want to be named, said, “We have talked with the AAP’s local top brass about the delay in joining the Congress’ campaign.”
However, assuaging Congress’ concerns, the AAP informed that it was working on forming its own committees and giving final touches to its internal party structure and organisation.
“The AAP has assured that after putting its own house in order, it will start a coordinated campaign with us. A meeting of senior leaders of the AAP and the Congress, including alliance’s Lok Sabha candidate Manish Tewari, is scheduled for tomorrow,” the Congress leader said.
Notably, AAP’s local unit had got a go-ahead from its national leadership on April 17 for the joint campaigning with the Congress.
The AAP and the Congress had formed an alliance in the city just before the mayoral elections. In exchange, the AAP decided to support the Congress’ candidate for the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat. The Congress had left the mayor’s post for the AAP. The alliance prevailed over the BJP with its candidate winning the mayoral polls.
“Chandigarh Congress president H S Lucky was present in the AAP press conferences after the BJP tried to manipulate the mayoral elections. There are still 38 days left until elections in the city, and we expect the AAP to join the Congress in campaigning soon,” the Congress leader said.
The Congress has pitted Manish Tewari against BJP’s Sanjay Tandon. Both the parties have started their campaign, but the joint AAP-Congress campaign has yet to gather steam. Earlier, some AAP councillors and leaders had expressed dissatisfaction with the perceived “lack of coordination” between the two parties.
“We feel ignored by the Congress during campaign programmes in our wards,” they had said.
AAP leaders will meet
Tewari in a day or two: Party’s co-incharge
The AAP will be forming a coordination committee to streamline its strategies for the upcoming elections. This committee will consist of three members from each party, ensuring a balanced representation. The focus of the committee will be to chalk out the day-to-day programmes, meetings, and overall campaign strategy.
“We have scheduled a meeting with Manish Tewari, where senior leaders from the AAP will be present. This important meeting is expected to take place either on Tuesday or Wednesday. The agenda of the meeting will be to highlight our joint efforts and shared vision for the future,” said Dr S S Ahluwalia, Chandigarh AAP’s co-incharge.
“Recently, our focus had been on other elections, but we have now engaged with H S Lucky, Manish Tewari and AICC Chandigarh in-charge Rajeev Shukla to finalise our strategies. We are in the process of organising a significant meeting with 100 active members from the AAP, who will be instrumental in driving the campaign forward,” he added.
The upcoming meeting with Tewari and other leaders of the INDIA Bloc is expected to set the tone for the campaign and solidifying the roles of senior leaders from the AAP.