New Delhi: Amid reports of emerging fissures between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ahead of the third meeting of the INDIA alliance in Mumbai, the two parties have said that the alliance, which has been formed to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 elections, remains “robust” and has been formed for the “national stage”.

“The INDIA alliance has always been clear that it is a national-level alliance for the general elections next year. It has never been suggested that this alliance will extend to the state elections,” Akshay Marathe, AAP spokesperson, told The Wire.

“The INDIA alliance is robust. A number of parties compete at the state level. Sometimes there is a misunderstanding, things are said and there are back and forth [disagreements], but this is nothing unusual. This has been going on ever since coalitions and alliance partners have been created. That is the historical truth,” Anshul Avijit, national spokesperson for the Congress, told The Wire.

Murmurs of fissures between the two new alliance partners emerged after Delhi Congress leader Alka Lamba said on August 16, after a party organisational meeting, that the Congress would contest all seven seats in the national capital in the 2024 general elections.

“It has been decided that we will contest on all seven seats. Seven months are left and all the party workers have been asked to prepare for all seven seats,” she was quoted as saying to ANI.

The statement drew sharp reactions from AAP which said that if they don’t want to form an alliance in Delhi, then there is no point in going for the meeting of the INDIA alliance.

#WATCH | On attending INDIA alliance meeting, AAP spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar says “…If they (Congress) don’t want to form an alliance in Delhi, then it makes no sense to go for INDIA alliance, it is a waste of time. The party’s top leadership will decide whether or not to… pic.twitter.com/gLv4mg4dRf

— ANI (@ANI) August 16, 2023

However, clarifications were issued later and Delhi chief minister and AAP’s national convener, Arvind Kejriwal, announced that he will attend the grouping’s meeting in Mumbai.

“We will go to Mumbai and will let you know whatever the strategy is,” he told reporters on August 21.

Earlier, Kejriwal and Congress’s Pawan Khera took aim at each other after the Delhi chief minister criticised the condition of government schools in the Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh.

Why go to Raipur? Performance of our Chattisgarh govt will be compared with the previous Raman Singh govt.

Let us choose a sector of your choice and compare the performance of Congress government in Delhi vs your govt here.

Ready for a debate?

रायपुर की उड़ान भरने से पहले… https://t.co/0wqOaOdOJO

— Pawan Khera 🇮🇳 (@Pawankhera) August 19, 2023

In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), Khera challenged him to debate on the comparison between the performance of the Congress in Delhi with that of AAP.

On August 20, while addressing a public rally in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, Kejriwal took aim at both the Congress and the BJP and asked the people to vote for AAP.

“We have come here for nation-building, not to make money. Ask Delhi and Punjab, people are saying that AAP will be in power for 50 years. Give us one chance, Madhya Pradesh, you will also forget BJP and Congress governments,” he said.

Madhya Pradesh में #KejriwalKiGuarantee No. 9️⃣ (Coming Soon…)

किसानों और आदिवासियों के लिए।

हम पैसा कमाने नहीं आए, मैं Income Tax Commissioner था, काम धंधा छोड़कर आए हैं, आपके काम करने आए हैं

1 मौका दो, आप भी दिल्ली और Punjab की तरह BJP Congress को भूल जाओगे

– CM… pic.twitter.com/uTHSchrgSg

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) August 20, 2023

“INDIA alliance is a national-level alliance”

With AAP trying to make inroads into Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan – where polls are due this year – the party said that the INDIA alliance is only for the national-level election.

“People are intelligent enough to see the difference between a state election where the issues are electricity, water, roads, jobs, and the national election where the issue is the economy, assault on the constitution, federalism, etc.,” said Marathe.

“The (INDIA) alliance is for the national election. For the state elections, AAP has a viable model. The Arvind Kejriwal model has found resonance across the country including in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan,” he said.

According to the Congress, coalitions like the INDIA alliance have worked in the past despite back and forth [disagreements] and political bickering between constituent partners.

“We have a fine example of a coalition alliance that works, which was in 2004, when a stable government got over 8% growth, a number of pro-poor reforms including MGNREGA that came to India’s rescue during the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of far-reaching reforms, a robust growth rate was brought during an alliance and that did not stop bickerings,” said Avijit.

“What keeps the alliance going is a common minimum programme. Politics goes on. After all you’re in politics, things are misunderstood and things are said – that is fine. But that has no bearing on the solid alliance that has got together – an anti-BJP alliance – that is against the BJP dividing the country and destroying the economy,” he added.

Avijit said that the meeting which Lamba referred to was not about the INDIA alliance’s working in any way.

“Our focus is on a very strong INDIA alliance at the Centre and other things will be worked out. It is an ongoing process. When you form unity, it is always a work in progress.”

“Even in meetings where those comments were made, those were purely [made] to evaluate the Congress party, its workers in Delhi; it was not about the INDIA alliance,” he said.

No ‘compromise’ on state elections

According to an AAP leader, who did not wish to be named, the INDIA alliance does not imply that parties should compromise on state elections.

“To say that Congress and AAP must compromise on state elections, I don’t think that was ever intended to be the consequence of the INDIA alliance,” said the leader.

“There are two different kinds of states – states where there are existing alliances, so it is up to those parties to decide how they will go ahead. I cannot imagine Mamata Banerjee fighting state elections with the Congress as an alliance partner, or Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and the Congress tying up for the state elections,” said the leader.

“This alliance is for the Lok Sabha elections and that is why this alliance has come together, and I think that there is that level of clarity on all sides,” the leader added.

However, Avijit said that the exact strategy cannot be preempted at this time.

“Let us not preempt any strategy,” he said.

“The unity formed in the last few months… the modalities of the unity are being worked out as it always is. The common minimum programme is already there to counter the politics of the BJP,” he said.

Also read: Has the India Alliance Made PM Modi Nervous?

Triangular contests in state elections to help BJP?

However, concerns have been raised that a three-corner fight between the Congress, the BJP and AAP in the upcoming state assembly elections could end up helping the BJP as it did in the Gujarat assembly elections in 2022.

“It is unfair to say that AAP takes Congress’s votes. AAP takes anti-incumbency votes,” said Marathe.

“In a state like Chhattisgarh or Rajasthan where the Congress is in power, AAP will take votes from those who are disenchanted with the government and those who don’t want the BJP either. So to say that AAP only takes one party’s vote is not fair and not true. If you see the election data for Delhi in 2020 and 2015, vote share shows supporters of every party have voted for AAP.”

Avijit, on the other hand, said that there is no question of a three-corner fight as the Congress will win all three states.

“We are winning there,” he said.

Rahul Verma, fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, and Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, Ashoka University, said that in the three states where elections are due this year, a triangular contest is unlikely to happen.

“There will not be a three-corner fight in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. It will be a bipolar fight between the Congress and the BJP. I don’t think AAP has any traction as of now. They might have 2-3% votes but at this moment it does not look like AAP has any traction to make it a triangular contest,” he told The Wire.

Verma said that while in Gujarat, AAP may have gained from the Congress’s votes, every state is a different story.

“Chhattisgarh is a difficult state for the BJP in state elections. Even with AAP contesting, it may not be easy for the BJP to win Chhattisgarh. Every state is different. In Punjab, AAP has a big presence. First four MPs from AAP in 2014 came from Punjab before they even had MPs in Delhi. In the 2017 Punjab elections, AAP came close to winning. Their win in 2022 is a fruition of eight years of assault.”

“In Gujarat, yes, they did get Congress’s votes. But Congress has been a party that has not been in power in Gujarat for 25 years, so it is natural for Congress voters to think let’s try something else. But that is not the case in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Both in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the Congress is in power. So for voters to think of a third alternative, which may not form the government but will just play a spoiler, is unlikely and for the AAP to play a role in these three states is difficult,” he said.