INDIA bloc closer to reaching seat-sharing pacts with Shiv Sena, NCP, earns new ally

With time running out for the Opposition’s INDIA coalition to finalise its electoral blueprint for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the Congress party got some respite from its allies in Maharashtra, on Tuesday (January 9), as it not only inched closer to a seat-sharing agreements with the Shiv Sena and NCP factions, led by Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar, respectively, but also earned a new ally, Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA).

What, perhaps, may have come as an even greater relief for the Grand Old Party was that its alliance talks with Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP), which also began formally on Tuesday, did not witness any acrimony.

'Most satisfactory' discussions

The Congress’s five-member National Alliance Committee has been holding separate discussions with each of its INDIA bloc partners over the past few days to iron out state-wise seat-sharing agreements. The committee had, over the past week, had one round of discussion each with Lalu Yadav’s RJD and Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) for Bihar’s 40 Lok Sabha seats and with the Aam Aadmi Party (largely for Delhi though the AAP leaders also stressed on discussions regarding Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Goa).

However, Congress sources told The Federal that Tuesday’s discussions regarding Maharashtra and UP were “the most satisfactory, so far”, while indicating that the negotiations with the Shiv Sena, NCP and their newly minted ally, the VBA, could conclude “following one or maximum two more rounds of consultations”.

A clear sign of the progress that the Maharashtra discussions had made was evident from the statement made by Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut to the media late Tuesday after the allies met Congress alliance committee members Mukul Wasnik, Ashok Gehlot, Salman Khurshid and Mohan Prakash.

INDIA's major gain

Raut, who had triggered a backlash from the Congress’s Maharashtra leaders recently by suggesting that while his party can rightfully stake claim for contesting 23 of the state’s 48 Lok Sabha seats, the Congress must “start from zero”, told reporters on Tuesday, “we have no differences on seat sharing now... we discussed all the constituencies individually and we have come to a consensus on most seats; we are confident that the alliance will fight the elections unitedly and win the maximum seats in Maharashtra”. Raut also confirmed that “we reached a consensus on including Vanchit Bahujan Agadhi in the INDIA alliance”.

A major gain for the alliance following Tuesday’s talks was the Congress’s consent to include the VBA of Dalit icon Dr BR Ambedkar’s grandson Prakash Ambedkar, in the INDIA bloc with the understanding that the outfit could be given two seats as part of the seat-sharing formula. Sources said Ambedkar could be fielded as the INDIA bloc candidate from the Akola constituency, which he had won in the 1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha elections.

The Shiv Sena and the NCP had both been keen on the VBA’s inclusion into the INDIA fold on grounds that it would bolster the alliance’s prospects in constituencies that have a sizeable Dalit population. The delay in the VBA’s induction was ostensibly owing to the frosty equations that the mercurial Ambedkar shares with some key leaders of the Congress’s Maharashtra unit and due to his past dalliance with Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM.

Shiv Sena softens stand

The nearly three-hour-long discussions at Wasnik’s residence also saw the Shiv Sena softening its stand on contesting a higher number of seats than the Congress. While Uddhav’s party had initially insisted on contesting no less than 23 seats against the 18 to 20 that the Congress was demanding, sources said the Sena climbed down from its stand “to ensure that the alliance talks don’t hit an impasse and also to accommodate the VBA”. Though the Sena may still end up contesting a seat or two more than the Congress, leaders from the two parties hinted that they could settle for 17 to 20 seats each, while leaving nine to 11 seats to be shared between the NCP and the VBA.

Earlier in the day, the Congress’s talks with SP leaders Ramgopal Yadav and Javed Ali Khan also went off without either side accusing the other of being unyielding or raking up episodes of past acrimony. The Congress is learnt to have sought a few more days from the SP leadership to have “more detailed seat-wise discussions” given that the recent reshuffle of the AICC had seen the party appointing a new in-charge of its affairs in the state that sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha.

Sources said that though no discussion took place on the number of seats that the SP, the dominant INDIA partner in UP, was willing to spare for the Congress, Wasnik and his colleagues put the SP leaders at ease over their discomfort with rumours of Mayawati’s BSP being inducted into the INDIA bloc.

Congress-SP discussion to resume

After the last joint meeting of INDIA allies on December 19, The Federal had reported that the SP leadership wanted an assurance from the Congress that it would not try to bring the BSP into the alliance. At that meeting too, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had informed SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, who threatened to walk out of the alliance if the BSP was made a part of it, that reports of Congress’s talks with Mayawati are “nothing more than baseless rumours”. During Tuesday’s talks, Ramgopal Yadav sought a similar assurance from the Wasnik-led Congress panel, which is learnt to have reiterated Kharge’s words.

The Congress-SP discussions will resume on Friday and are likely to take another two to three meetings before a consensus is reached on seat-sharing. The bloc’s third key member, Jayant Chaudhary’s RLD may also attend the next round of talks as specific seat-wise discussions are likely to happen then. The SP, said sources, wants to contest at least 65 of the state’s 80 seats, leaving 15 to be shared between the Congress and the RLD. Though the GOP has been hoping to bag at least 20 seats in the alliance, party sources said it could finally settle for half that number given Kharge’s insistence that the party must do nothing that derails the INDIA bloc in any state.