Opposition unity: AAP-Congress tussle puts spanner in 21 Lok Sabha seats

New Delhi: Amid a combined opposition's insistence on a one-to-one fight against the BJP on all the 543 Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 general elections, the ongoing feud between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the Centre's ordinance on Delhi has at the outset jeopardised the unity bid in 21 constituencies and out of these 21 seats, 13 are in Punjab, seven in Delhi and one Chandigarh.

This could be music to the BJP's ears given that the saffron party led in two of the nine assembly segments in the recent by-elections to the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat, which was wrested by the AAP from the Congress.

The tussle could also put a question mark on the two Lok Sabha seats in Goa where the AAP has expanded its footprints.

At Friday's meeting of the opposition parties in Patna, many leaders, including AAP convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, called for a one-to-one fight against the BJP to oust Prime Minister Narendra Modi from power.

The argument extended here is that the BJP gains substantially in the event of a division of the opposition votes. It has also been established that the BJP is on a weak wicket in seats wherever there is a direct contest with a strong rival party.

While the Congress is the main opposition party in Punjab with the BJP still on the margins, the AAP's main political rival in Delhi is the BJP.

For the past five decades, it has been seen that whichever party wins the majority of seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi goes on to form the government at the national level.

Hence, it is imperative for both the Congress and the AAP to bury their differences and unitedly fight against the BJP. Otherwise, both the parties are bound to suffer substantial electoral losses in Delhi. The BJP had won all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in both the 2014 and 2019 national elections.

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee insisted that the opposition parties should sink their differences to ensure that no vote goes to the BJP.

National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah maintained that it would be good for the opposition if there is a one-to-one contest in 450 of the 543 seats. Is it possible? Only time will tell.