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NEW DELHI: The INDIA alliance of opposition parties having kept their meetings at bay till the results for assembly elections were out, to work out their seat-sharing formula to take on the ruling BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, have decided to meet on December 6, here.
BJP sweeping the Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan on Sunday, came as a big blow to the opposition coalition, as Congress lost ground to rival BJP in straight fights in the three states, even as it won Telengana.However, with Congress taking the hit, the finalising of the seat-share deal among the coalition partners, will be smoother now with the regional parties getting to have their way with the Congress leadership.
A weakened Congress, makes it comfortable for regional leaders — like Mamata Banerjee (TMC), Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Nitish Kumar (JDU), Lalu Prasad and Tejaswi Yadav (RJD), M K Stalin (DMK) Sharad Pawar (NCP), Uddhav Thackaray (Shiv Sena) and others – to dictate terms in their respective strongholds, where Congress has been pushing for more seats than was being offered, to be left for them to fight, in a one-on-one contest, being worked out to take on BJP at the national level.
On the contrary, if Congress had won some key north Indian states on Sunday, it would look for greater share of seats from states where the grand old party has not had the strength to win many seats on its own, for years.
TMC, JD(U), SP, RJD, DMK Shiv Sena, have been pushing for early resolution to the seat-sharing deal, so that there is enough time to “prepare anti-BJP voters to focus on a single party on the ground, in each constituency to ensure a defeat for the BJP candidate,” according to a key member of the INDIA party alliance. They wanted to finalise the seats as early as by September 30, so that parties could start working on the ground. “But, buoyed by its Karnataka victory, Congress postponed the seat-sharing deal to beyond December 3 (poll results) expecting to win some states, to be in a position to bargain better for its share of seats in states where it is weak,” the source explained.
It is not without reason that, within hours of Sunday’s results being clear, one of the first INDIA alliance partners to react was Nitish Kumar’s JDU. Party spokesperson K C Tyagi said, Congress never invited or consulted any of its allies in the INDIA bloc even though socialist parties have historically had a presence in these states… It is very necessary now for everyone to strengthen the INDIA bloc. If the alliance meeting was called a couple of months earlier, it would have been good,” while talking to the media here.
On his part, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said in Mumbai on Sunday, “I don’t think this will have any impact on the INDIA alliance. We will be meeting at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence in Delhi. We will speak to those who know the ground reality. We will be able to comment on it after the meeting only,” Pawar said. One must accept that the current trends are in favour of BJP, he added. On Telengana Pawar said, “Earlier, it was assumed BRS would retain Telangana. However, after Rahul Gandhi’s rally, which received a huge response, we realised there will be change in the state.”
BJP sweeping the Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan on Sunday, came as a big blow to the opposition coalition, as Congress lost ground to rival BJP in straight fights in the three states, even as it won Telengana.However, with Congress taking the hit, the finalising of the seat-share deal among the coalition partners, will be smoother now with the regional parties getting to have their way with the Congress leadership.
A weakened Congress, makes it comfortable for regional leaders — like Mamata Banerjee (TMC), Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Nitish Kumar (JDU), Lalu Prasad and Tejaswi Yadav (RJD), M K Stalin (DMK) Sharad Pawar (NCP), Uddhav Thackaray (Shiv Sena) and others – to dictate terms in their respective strongholds, where Congress has been pushing for more seats than was being offered, to be left for them to fight, in a one-on-one contest, being worked out to take on BJP at the national level.
On the contrary, if Congress had won some key north Indian states on Sunday, it would look for greater share of seats from states where the grand old party has not had the strength to win many seats on its own, for years.
TMC, JD(U), SP, RJD, DMK Shiv Sena, have been pushing for early resolution to the seat-sharing deal, so that there is enough time to “prepare anti-BJP voters to focus on a single party on the ground, in each constituency to ensure a defeat for the BJP candidate,” according to a key member of the INDIA party alliance. They wanted to finalise the seats as early as by September 30, so that parties could start working on the ground. “But, buoyed by its Karnataka victory, Congress postponed the seat-sharing deal to beyond December 3 (poll results) expecting to win some states, to be in a position to bargain better for its share of seats in states where it is weak,” the source explained.
It is not without reason that, within hours of Sunday’s results being clear, one of the first INDIA alliance partners to react was Nitish Kumar’s JDU. Party spokesperson K C Tyagi said, Congress never invited or consulted any of its allies in the INDIA bloc even though socialist parties have historically had a presence in these states… It is very necessary now for everyone to strengthen the INDIA bloc. If the alliance meeting was called a couple of months earlier, it would have been good,” while talking to the media here.
On his part, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said in Mumbai on Sunday, “I don’t think this will have any impact on the INDIA alliance. We will be meeting at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence in Delhi. We will speak to those who know the ground reality. We will be able to comment on it after the meeting only,” Pawar said. One must accept that the current trends are in favour of BJP, he added. On Telengana Pawar said, “Earlier, it was assumed BRS would retain Telangana. However, after Rahul Gandhi’s rally, which received a huge response, we realised there will be change in the state.”
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