NEW DELHI: Congress has called a meeting of party leaders of ten states on December 29-30 to discuss seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha polls, following which they would contact the INDIA partners for the final negotiations.
The AICC’s “national alliance committee”, which met on Saturday, decided to speak to the state units to get an idea of their expectations from deals with the like-minded partners. The panel, with Mukul Wasnik as convener and former CMs Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel as members among others, was constituted in the wake of pressure from allies that Congress had delayed seat-sharing for LS polls, which was proving a handicap in moving forward with strategy and campaign.

The INDIA alliance meeting this week too focused on the issue, and demanded that the deals be finalised by the year-end. The panel is looking after J&K, Jharkhand, Bihar, UP, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Delhi. The focus would be on whether Congress ties up with AAP in Punjab and Delhi, and with TMC in Bengal.