AAP, Congress leaders discuss seat sharing for Lok Sabha polls

New Delhi: Senior leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress held seat-sharing talks on Friday and decided to meet again, with the Congress saying the two parties share a "very good chemistry".

Congress leader Salman Khurshid said the leaders of the two parties shared their thoughts and discussed "everything under the sun" and would move together to strengthen the I.N.D.I.A bloc further.

Khurshid, who is part of the seat-sharing committee of the Congress, attended the discussions that the leaders had at the residence of senior party leader Mukul Wasnik. The meeting lasted for over two hours. AAP leaders Raghav Chadha, Atishi, Sandeep Pathak and Saurab Bhardwaj took part in the discussions.

The leaders of I.N.D.I.A bloc parties discussed seat sharing in Delhi, Punjab and other states for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The last talks over seat sharing held on Monday remained inconclusive even as both the Congress and AAP leaders said talks were progressing in a positive direction.

Khurshid said they had a wonderful meeting.

"We discussed everything under the Sun. We have very good chemistry, we open-heartedly shared everything that we believed would make our bonds stronger. It was a wonderful meeting and I believe we went much further than our expectations," he told reporters after the meeting.

Asked when the seat-sharing would be finalised, he said, "I hope very soon because we are tied up with so many of our colleagues tomorrow. As soon as we have the next meeting, we will be able to firm up certain proposals and bring them before our leadership. Whatever we do, we will do it together."

Echoing similar views, Chadha said that the talks were progressing well. "The discussion on alliance is going on very well, but ball-by-ball commentary cannot be done on alliance talks," he told reporters.

Khurshid said, "A long story takes time to tell. It was a beautiful story that we told each other, we shared and added to that story. It was a very satisfying and a very wonderful experience. Seat sharing is a very specific thing which comes on the agenda."

"We want this alliance to be strengthened for the future of this country," he noted, adding that till their decision is not finalised they would not discuss it in public.

"We do not keep it before the media till we discuss it with our leadership. In a democracy, a decision is taken keeping the views of workers and leaders. We all have perceptions and the whole purpose of talks is to bring the perceptions together," he said when asked about state units of Congress in Punjab and Delhi being against seat sharing.

Khurshid said, "We are together in the alliance and everything is on the table. What arrangements would be more advisable and viable in a state will depend on the circumstances."

"Every state was discussed. We shared an aspiration amongst ourselves in the I.N.D.I.A alliance. We shared thoughts, ideas and suggestions and we don't want to reduce them to the number of seats or states," Khurshid said.

When asked why no result was coming out of the talks, the Congress leader said, "Good chemistry takes time to appear."

"Up till now there has not been any explosion, there have not been any cracks in the test tubes, and the colour looks very good. Now just wait for the final solution."

On the Punjab unit of the Congress opposing the alliance, the senior leader said, "Send them my best wishes, we take what they say very seriously and so does the Aam Aadmi Party of their workers and that is all factored in when we finally sit here to make decisions."

Asked about Saturday's virtual meeting of the I.N.D.I.A bloc leaders, he said, "Something good and wonderful is coming out."

Sources in AAP said that the party was interested in contesting the Lok Sabha polls in Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Goa, and Delhi in alliance with the Congress.