As the Congress central leadership began an exercise of consulting state units to gauge their mind on the contentious issue of seat sharing with INDIA constituents, the party came under pressure Friday from allies to show flexibility and a big heart.
Electing Kumar the president of the party – he replaced Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh – and praising his role in bringing together Opposition parties, the JD(U) national executive said the bigger parties in the INDIA bloc have a “larger responsibility” and they should show a big heart to make the alliance successful.
The Shiv Sena (UBT), on the other hand, said it would contest 23 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra and said its talks with the Congress have to start from “zero” as it has “not won any seat” in the state.
The posturing by these parties came a day after West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee declared that it will be her party which will take on the BJP in the state. While the INDIA bloc will confront the BJP nationwide, the TMC will spearhead the battle in West Bengal, she told a workers’ meeting in North 24 Parganas Thursday.
The five-member national alliance committee of the Congress, comprising former Chief Ministers Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel and senior leaders Mukul Wasnik, Salman Khurshid and Mohan Prakash, meanwhile, met leaders of several state units – among them DelhiBihar and Maharashtra – to seek their views on seat sharing.
A senior functionary of the Congress said the party was ready to be flexible. The state units, he said, may have their views but in a national alliance, national factors will take precedence over state factors. The Congress, sources said, is ready to walk the extra mile to accommodate the INDIA allies.
The Congress alliance committee, which is meeting state leaders, is expected to submit its report to party president Mallikarjun Kharge over the weekend. Sources in the Congress said the party will formally begin seat-sharing talks with allies next week.
The assertion by Sena leader Sanjay Raut that talks with Congress would start from zero has irked the state Congress leadership. “This is Maharashtra. The Shiv Sena is here. Shiv Sena means the biggest party in Maharashtra. The Congress is a national party. We are in talks with their national leadership, be it Rahulji, Soniaji, Kharge Sahab or Venugopal. Our dialogue with the decision makers of the Congress are proceeding smoothly,” Raut said.
“The decision on how many seats we will contest… How many seats they will contest will be made in Delhi. If the ‘gaon ke, gali ke log’ here talk about national level issues… who will listen to them. We have said that we have always been contesting in 23 seats in Maharashtra in Lok Sabha and (we will also contest) Dadra Nagar Haveli…woh hamare seats kayam rahegi (our seats will retain intact). We had decided in our second meeting that we will discuss sitting seats later… the Congress does not figure in it as they have not won any seat in Maharashtra. So the talks with the Congress have to start from zero in the state,” he said.
“But the Congress is an important constituent of the Maha Vikas Aghadi… and the Congress, NCP and the Shiv Sena will work together,” he said. The Congress had won only one seat in Maharashtra in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Responding to these remarks, Congress leader Milind Deora reminded Raut that the Congress is the largest Opposition party in the Maharashtra Assembly and is heading the Opposition.
“I want to tell Raut that no alliance can move forward without consulting the local leadership of Maharashtra. This view is supported by the AICC,” he said.
The JD(U) praised Kumar for bringing the Opposition parties together. “A big message regarding Opposition unity went across the country after the Patna meeting and people have appreciated the role played by Kumar as sutradhar of the alliance. We are proud that there are only a few leaders in Indian politics who are as experienced as him. The BJP camp is scared of the fact that the INDIA alliance has a leader like Nitish Kumar,” a resolution passed by the JD(U) national executive said.
The JD(U) noted that Kumar has spelt out clearly that he has no desire to become the Prime Minister or the convener of the INDIA bloc. Maintaining that people are looking at the INDIA bloc with hope, the JD(U) said the bigger parties in the alliance have a larger responsibility – in Bihar, the Congress is seeking 10 seats.
“They have to show a big heart to make this alliance a success. If responsibilities have to be assigned on the basis of experience and capability, there has to be magnanimity),” it said.
Sources said the Congress national alliance committee sought the views of the state units including the breakup of seats where the party had finished first and second in the last elections, the caste composition of the seats and a categorisation of seats where the party is strong and weak.
“As far as we are concerned, the seat sharing or alliance formula is based on the simple calculation of which party came second in a particular seat… In the event of an alliance, we will stake claim to four or five of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi based on our performance on that seat in the previous general election. The party will just concentrate on the seats that it is contesting and leave the others for the alliance partner; this way there is no issue with transfer of votes,” a Delhi leader said after the meeting.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 29-12-2023 at 20:34 IST
