'No Truck With Congress, AAP To Go Solo In Punjab': CM Bhagwant Mann

In a double whammy, the Punjab chief minister and AAP leader Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday ruled out any truck with the Congress in his state in the upcoming general elections hours after West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee announced that her party – an ally of the INDIA bloc - would go solo in her state.

Interacting with the newspersons here, Mann said that AAP would create a history in Punjab by winning all the 13 in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. He said: "Desh mein Punjab banega hero, Aam Aadmi Party 13-0," he said adding that the AAP was not going with Congress in Punjab.

Pertinently, on Saturday last only, the AAP supermo and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had held a meeting with its party leaders including Mann where the latter was said to have articulated Punjab leaders’ will against the alliance with Congress, the principal opposition party in the state.

AAP confident of winning seats: Mann

On the question pertaining to the AAP’s alliance with Congress for the Chandigarh’s mayoral polls, Mann held that the AAP would win all the 13 seats in Punjab and the mayor’s seat in Chandigarh independently on the basis of the party's good performance and create a history.

Strained relations between AAP-Congress

Mann added that most of the senior leaders of AAP in Punjab had been opposed to the alliance with the Congress as the AAP had since the past three years been calling Congress as corrupt. The state leaders also felt that by having an alliance with the Congress now, would have an adverse impression of the AAP in the minds of the voters. It may also be recalled that the Congress leadership, on the other hand, had also been vocal against having any truck with the ruling AAP.

The Lok Sabha polls would also be a litmus test for the party, he said and added that for all the 13 seats in Punjab, names of about 40 probable candidates had come – three to four candidates each for 13 Lok Sabha seat and surveys would be held to choose one on the basis of winnability criterion.