Congress should be more accommodating of regional allies: AAP leaders

The results in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh show that there is a "significant anti-Congress sentiment" in the Hindi belt, senior AAP leaders claimed on Monday.

Ahead of the crucial meeting of the constituent parties of the INDIA block on Wednesday, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said that the Congress should be more accommodating of regional parties in states.

"The results of the three states show there is a significant anti-Congress sentiment in North India.

"The purpose of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) is to defeat the BJP in Lok Sabha polls, so Congress should give more space to regional parties in the states where they are better placed to combat the BJP," said a senior party leader, requesting anonymity.

The BJP won assembly polls in MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in results declared on Sunday, in a setback to the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

"The Congress used to accuse us of being a party that cut into their votes wherever we contested elections.

"We had kept our visibility minimum in MP, Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh where we contested the Assembly polls so that the chances of Congress remain better, but Congress failed to live up to its claims," said another senior party leader.

AAP leader Jasmine Shah had on Sunday taken a dig with a post on X, "After today's results, @AamAadmiParty emerges as the largest opposition party in north India with two state governments -- Punjab and Delhi."

The Congress is now left in power only in Himachal Pradesh in the north. It is ruling in only three states - HP, Karnataka and Telangana, on its own and is in power in Bihar and Jharkhand as a junior partner in alliance with regional parties.

The INDIA alliance meeting on December 6 is likely to see a discussion on the strategy in the lead-up to the Lok Sabha polls.

Earlier in the day, talking to PTI Video, AAP MP Sushil Gupta had said that the future strategy will be decided at the meeting while the seat-sharing talks will happen later.

The AAP was also in the poll fray in the three states but secured less than one per cent vote share.

In Chhatisgarh, it secured 0.93 per cent votes, even less than NOTA while in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, also it met the same fate, where its vote share stood at a dismal 0.38 per cent and 0.54 per cent.

The party had won two seats in the Goa Assembly elections and five in the Gujarat assembly polls. It failed to open its account in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka where it contested.

In a statement after Sunday's poll results, AAP had asserted that the assembly election results do not reflect the nation's mood for next year's Lok Sabha polls.

"The Aam Aadmi Party is in the formative stages in these states and we were contesting to ensure that our message reaches everyone," it had said.