Congress didn’t back INDIA nominee in Lok Sabha polls, says senior AAP leader Dhanda

Kaithal, June 7

Senior state vice-president of AAP Anurag Dhanda has accused senior Congress leaders of failing to support the INDIA bloc candidate, AAP state president Sushil Gupta, in the recent Lok Sabha elections for the Kurukshetra seat.

“It cannot be a coincidence that the INDIA bloc candidate lost in Assembly constituencies where Congress has strong leaders and legislators,” Dhanda alleged during a media interaction.

He alleged that despite an anti-BJP wave, the alliance could not win Kurushetra Lok Sabha seat. “We faced defeat from the Assembly segments of Kurukshetra Lok Sabha constituency, where prominent Congress leaders reside. The alliance candidate lost by 17,000 votes in the Assembly segment where Congress Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala lives and had campaigned,” he alleged. Similarly, in Thanesar, where Congress leader Ashok Arora lost by a narrow margin in the last Assembly elections, the alliance candidate lost by nearly 18,000 votes in this election,” Dhanda said.

“We will review the results in a workers’ meeting soon to determine the reasons. The local workers’ inputs raise some doubts about the actions of senior Congress leaders,” he stated.

He also pointed out that in constituencies like Guhla, Kalayat, Pehowa and Shahabad, where Congress did not have strong leaders, the alliance secured victories.

Dhanda said the BJP, which won 10 seats in 2019, had won only five seats this time. He claimed that the INDIA bloc could have defeated the BJP on all 10 seats if not for certain factors that gave the BJP an advantage. He said AAP had emerged as the third political force in Haryana, surpassing the INLD, JJP and the BSP. “The INLD received 1.74 per cent of the votes, totalling 2,26,052 votes across Haryana; the JJP received 0.87 per cent with 1,13,122 votes; and the BSP gained 1.28 per cent, totalling 1,65,866 votes. The combined total of these three parties is 5,05,040 votes, while AAP, which contested only one seat in Kurukshetra, received 5,13,000 votes, surpassing the combined votes of the three parties.”

Dhanda further stated that the Congress contested nine Lok Sabha seats and won four, which included victories in 42 Assembly segments, while BJP won five Lok Sabha seats, comprising victories in 44 Assembly segments. Although AAP contested one Lok Sabha seat and did not secure a victory, it won in four Assembly segments. “This means, without AAP, no party has a majority. If AAP had won the Kurukshetra seat, it would have brought about a storm that would blow away all the old political parties. So, a conspiracy was hatched against AAP,” he said.

However, the AAP state president and Kurukshetra candidate of the INDIA bloc distanced from Dhanda’s statement and said it was his personal view, not of the party.