Cong initiates seat-sharing talks in INDIA bloc, reaches out to Oppn party chiefs: Report

After dithering on the issue for several months, primarily due to the assembly elections to five states in November last year the results of which the Congress had probably hoped would strengthen its bargaining position, the party has finally set the ball rolling on seat-sharing among the INDIA alliance parties for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress party is reaching out to allies across the country to finalise seat-sharing in various states after a couple of intra-party meetings at the party headquarters and then at the residence of the party president Mallikarjun Kharge, according to an NDTV report.

Senior Congress leader Mukul Wasnik, who heads the Congress’ committee on seat-sharing, is said to have telephoned the heads of various Opposition parties, and the party seems to be willing to even travel to different states to thrash out the issue. The other members of the committee are former chief ministers of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel.

The committee had earlier listened to representations from Congress leaders of various states on the number of seats they wished to fight for in their respective states and discussed it with Kharge and Rahul Gandhi on Thursday (January 4).

There’s now a sense of urgency on the part of the Congress because the party is keen to complete the process before Rahul sets off on his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra on January 14. That gives the INDIA bloc parties a little more than a week to settle the most contentious issue before the general elections.

The seat-sharing process is going to be tough for the Congress, with the regional parties making it clear that they were unwilling to part with their territory.

War of words in Bengal

In West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been quite vocal in stating that it is only her party, the Trinamool Congress, that could defeat the BJP and teach it a lesson. She has said that the INDIA alliance would be present all over the country, but in Bengal, the TMC would be its face.

State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, "The grand old party won't beg for seats from the TMC," drawing a response from the Banerjee-led party, which asserted that "badmouthing alliance partners and seat-sharing can't go hand in hand".

Chowdhury, a staunch critic of the TMC, launched a no-holds-barred attack, accusing Bengal's ruling party of being busy "serving Prime Minister Narendra Modi" rather than strengthening the opposition alliance.

His remarks prompted a sharp reaction from the TMC, which criticised Chowdhury for making "callous remarks" and cautioned the Congress high command to rein in their state president.

Seat sharing between the two parties has been a bone of contention, with media reports suggesting that the TMC is keen to allocate only two seats, a proposition unacceptable to the Congress Bengal unit.

In the 2019 elections, the TMC won 22 seats, the Congress won two (Behrampore and Malda South), and the BJP secured 18.

Shiv Sena (UBT), AAP harden stance

A similar story has been playing out in Maharashtra, where the Shiv Sena (UBT) has staked its claim as the biggest party in the state. It has made it clear that it will fight in 23 seats (out of 48 in the state), which it has traditionally done. The remaining 25 seats will have to be shared between the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction) and the Congress.

The Aam Aadmi Party wants to contest all the seats in the two states it is in power – 13 seats in Punjab and eight in Delhi. Forget the fact that in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it could win only four seats in Punjab and drew a blank in Delhi, losing all the eight to the BJP.

Akhilesh Yadav unlikely to yield much ground in UP

In Uttar Pradesh, the state that sends the highest number of MPs to Parliament, 80, the Congress can expect the Samajwadi Party to put up a very tough stance, given the dismal performance of the grand old party in the last few Lok Sabha elections and the rebuff that Akhilesh Yadav received at the hands of Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh in the recent assembly elections.

Bihar will see a tussle among three parties for seats, with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal United getting a major share, leaving not much for the Congress.

In Tamil Nadu, the Congress has always been the junior partner to the DMK and will have to accept what it gets, especially given the fact that there are other parties fighting for a share of the pie in the state.

All in all, the next few days will reveal how much of give and take the various parties in the INDIA alliance are willing to display, and whether they are ready to make the necessary sacrifices to achieve the larger objective of putting up a strong opposition to the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections this year.