AAP HAS LOST SUPPORT, CONG NEEDS NO ALLY IN PUNJAB: CM

CHANDIGARH: Chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said Congress in Punjab does not need any ally for 2019 Lok Sabha elections as the party will “win hands down on its own”.

In a statement, apparently in light of reports of a possible alliance between Congress and state’s main opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), he underlined that Congress it won bypolls in Gurdaspur and Shahkot. About AAP, he said it has lost support “completely”. He claimed he has not said he was open to allying with AAP.

He, however, reiterated that the final decision has to be taken by Congress high command, and it will be accepted by all the state units. “Several factors, including winnability, are usually taken into account by the party before going in for an alliance... As far as the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) is concerned, it will share its views with the party high command as and when it seeks those.”

Of 13 LS seats in Punjab, Congress and AAP have four each, as does the SAD, while BJP holds one. Two of the AAP’s MPs, though, have rebelled and all but formally severed ties with the party. In last year’s assembly polls, after being considered a frontrunner by many pundits, AAP finished a distant second with 20 of 117 seats as Congress won 77.

‘WILL QUIT AAP IF PACT WITH CONG’

LUDHIANA:AAP legislator HS Phoolka on Tuesday said he will quit the party if it joins hands with Congress. A noted lawyer who has represented the 1984 riot victims, blamed the Congress for the violence that took place in the aftermath of the then PM Indira Gandhi’s killing. He said any understanding with the Congress would amount to giving a clean chit to the alleged perpetrators of the anti-Sikh riots.