The AAP had won four Lok Sabha seats from Punjab in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls though it drew a blank in Delhi, finishing second on all seven seats ahead of the Congress party. However, Congress leaders believe that the strength of AAP in Punjab had dramatically worsened over the past three years with at least two of its sitting MPs openly criticizing Kejriwal’s leadership and several of its MLAs in the Punjab Assembly too in the mood for a rebellion. In stark contrast, the Congress under Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh had been steadily gaining ground in the state and saw no reason to cede its ground to the AAP. In Haryana too, local party leaders like Bhupinder Hooda, Kumari Selja, Kiran Chaudhary, Randeep Surjewala and others stridently opposed any possibility of a tie-up with AAP.