NEW DELHI: Opposition’s INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc achieved their second breakthrough on Saturday when Congress and Aam Aadmi Party announced seat-sharing deal for Delhi, Gujarat and Haryana for upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The fact that Punjab was kept out of tie-up talks makes this alliance interesting even as it gives fodder to the BJP to step up its attack calling INDIA bloc an opportunist alliance.
Of all the states, the most complex and interesting case is of Delhi, which has 7 Lok Sabha seats. Interestingly, neither AAP nor Congress has managed to win even one of the 7 Delhi seats in the last two Lok Sabha elections. This despite the fact that AAP has registered comprehensive sweeping victories over BJP in two consecutive assembly elections.

So, should the BJP be worried about this tie-up? Well, not really if the data of 2019 Lok Sabha elections are an indication to go by.

The BJP got more than 50% of the votes polled on all the seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi in 2019. which means even if the Congress and AAP had contested together in 2019 they would not have managed to defeat the BJP in the national capital.
The vote share also throws light on an interesting fact. The AAP may have managed to play the big brother in the national capital by keeping 4 Lok Sabha seats for the party, in 2019 elections the vote share of Arvind Kejriwal’s party was less than that of the Congress in 5 out of the 7 seats. Clearly, when it comes to national elections, the Congress has a better showing than AAP.
In fact, AAP’s vote share in Delhi came down to 18.11% in 2019 from 32.92% in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress, on the other hand, registered a marginal increase in its vote share from 15.15% in 2014 to 22.51% in 2019.
The dynamics of an alliance can often give an extra momentum on ground, but for that to happen the spirit of tieup has to percolate down to the leaders and cadres. Given the not so cordial relationship between the local leaders of the two parties, it will be interesting to see if that happens.