The Congress CEC meeting to decide the candidates for the upcoming Haryana Assembly polls is underway at the antional capital. Party’s national president Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary KC Venugopal, AICC in-charge of Haryana Deepak Babaria, LoP in State Assembly and former CM  Bhupinder Hooda and others present in the meeting.

Earlier in the day, the Congress said it is in talks with AAP for an alliance in Haryana but nothing has been finalised yet.

Prior to this, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh welcomed reports claiming Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has shown interest in the possibility of an alliance with Arvind Kejriwal-led party in poll-bound Haryana.

There were several reports claiming that Rahul Gandhi, in a meeting of Congress’ Central Election Committee (CEC) on Monday, expressed interest in the possibility of alliance with AAP for assembly polls in Haryana.

Replying to a possibility of an alliance with AAP, AICC general secretary in-charge of state Deepak Babaria said, “We are in talks with the Aam Aadmi Party, but nothing has been finalised yet. As soon as something is finalised, we will inform you,” he said. 

Responding to another question, Babaria said, “We have to defeat the BJP and not allow votes to be divided.” His remarks came after a screening committee meeting of the party ahead of the CEC meeting later this evening.