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Congress and AAP have started seat-sharing talks for Haryana assembly polls which could lead to continuation of alliance they had in the state during the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year.
The Congress has formed a three-member committee, which includes party's screening committee chairman for the state Ajay Maken, AICC in-charge of Haryana Deepak Babaria and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, for seat-sharing talks with Aam Aadmi Party and Samajwadi Party. Party general secretary KC Venugopal will overlook the work of the committee. Congress sources said that the party is willing to give 3-5 seats to AAP and one to the Samajwadi Party in Haryana which has 90-member assembly. They said the discussions with AAP follow suggestion of party leader Rahul Gandhi, who is Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha. The sources said that during the Congress Central Election Committee meeting, Rahul Gandhi discussed the possibilities of contesting elections as INDIA bloc and said that the party should make efforts to ensure that the votes of the alliance are not divided. AAP MP Sanjay Singh later welcomed the suggestion and said that final decision will be taken after consultations with party chief Arvind Kejriwal. "We welcome it. Our priority is to defeat the BJP. Our Haryana in-charge Sandeep Pathak and Sushil Gupta will discuss it and take a final decision and inform Arvind Kejriwal about it and a decision will be taken accordingly," Sanjay Singh said. Deepak Babaria told the media that talks with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) regarding alliance are in preliminary stage. "We are exploring it. If there is any further development in the next 2-3 days, we will let you know," he said. Congress sources also said that the party has formed a sub-committee to take a decision on the pending seats in Haryana. The panel includes Madhusudan Mistri, Ajay Maken and Deepak Babaria and will hold separate talks with party's three senior leaders in Haryana - Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Kumari Selja. The meetings with the three leaders are expected to take place on Thursday. Party sources said that about 24 seats are in the pending list and no agreement could be reached on these in the meeting of the Central Election Committee. AAP sources said that there have been talks with Congress. They said that the party has demanded 10 seats from Congress. They said talks have been held between party leader Raghav Chadha and KC Venugopal. Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to campaign in Jammu and Kashmir on September 4 and in Maharashtra on September 5. He will leave for United States on the intervening night of September 6 and 7 and is expected to return on September 13 and 14. Sources said that Rahul Gandhi, who has taken the initiative for seat-sharing talks among INDIA bloc partners, will join online if needed for a final decision. Jammu and Kashmir will go the polls in three phases - September 18, 25 and October 1. Polling in Haryana will be held on October 5. Votes will be counted on October 8. (ANI)
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