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Amid pressure from INDIA bloc partners, the Congress leadership informed state units on Thursday that the party would focus on 255 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, possibly signalling its willingness to contest fewer seats than in the 2019 national elections, reported The Indian Express.
It further stated that seat-sharing negotiations with INDIA partners would commence soon.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi, as well as AICC general secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal, met with members of the party’s five-member national alliance committee, which had held extensive discussions with state units in the previous days. The committee presented its report to the leadership and was given the go-ahead to begin talks with INDIA bloc constituents.
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2019 Lok Sabha elections
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the party ran for 421 seats and won 52 of them. It formed alliance with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra, Janata Dal (Secular) [JD(S)] in Karnataka, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in Jharkhand, and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu. Accordingly, it had contested only nine out of the 40 seats in Bihar, seven of the 14 seats in Jharkhand, 21 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 25 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra, and nine of the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu. In Uttar Pradesh, it contested in 70 of the 80 seats.
Current seat-sharing scenario
The Congress is well aware that seat sharing will be tough in various states, particularly Delhi, Punjab, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh.
While the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has indicated a willingness to form a coalition with the Congress in Punjab, the state unit of the Congress believes any alliance with the AAP, which is in power in the state, would be suicidal. The Bengal unit is also opposed to any alliance with the Trinamool Congress (TMC). In Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party (SP) said it would run for 65 seats, leaving only 15 for the Congress and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).
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The same will apply with the Left and other parties who would want to contest in more than one state under the banner of the INDIA coalition.
“There is already an alliance which is called the INDIA alliance. And we will be talking to parties with influence in various areas and keeping their influence in view, we will have our dialogue. And certainly it will be a state-wise discussion and we will see how to move forward,” senior Congress leader Mukul Wasnik, the convenor of the alliance committee, was quoted as saying by Indian Express.
First Published: Jan 05 2024 | 12:35 PM IST
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