New Delhi : After UP and Delhi, the Congress has fast-tracked the process of finalizing alliances in Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra where an announcement could be made over the next few days.
“After UP and Delhi, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are in the pipeline. An alliance in these four states will be announced over the next few days. Talks are on in West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir where a formal announcement could come after these four states,” a senior AICC functionary said.
The Congress-SP alliance in UP was announced on Feb 21 while the Congress-AAP alliance in Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana was announced on Feb 24. “UP actually has led the process of alliances. I hope alliances in other states will also be finalized soon,” AICC in charge of UP Avinash Pande told this channel.
According to party insiders, a decision on Bharuch seat for AAP actually delayed the announcement as Mumtaz Patel, daughter of party veteran late Ahmed Patel was seeking a ticket from there. “We decided to give Bharuch seat to AAP despite reservations from local leaders for the sake of alliance. The AAP also agreed to give the Chandigarh seat to us and gave up its claim on the South Goa seat,” said a senior Delhi Congress leader.
According to party insiders, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge is keen to wrap up the alliances by end of this month and former chief Rahul Gandhi intervened by personally talking to Maharashtra allies Shiv Sena UBT leader Uddhav Thackery and NCP Sharadchandra Pawar group leader Sharad Pawar to finalize seal-sharing.
According to party insiders, the Congress can get around 18/48 seats in Maharashtra, 11/40 in Bihar, 9/14 in Jharkhand and 9/39 in Tamil Nadu.
“The good thing is that the Congress had been working closely with its allies in these states including Sena UBT and NCP Sharad Pawar in Maharashtra, RJD and Left parties in Bihar, JMM, RJD in Jharkhand and DMK in Tamil Nadu for years. The alliances are crucial before we complete our work,” said a senior AICC functionary involved in short-listing potential candidates.
Besides seat-sharing, surveys to identify potential candidates have started in the states where the alliances have become public. “See, surveying all the seats together does not make any sense. As soon as we seal an alliance in a state the survey will start there. The screening panels will shortlist the names and send it to the Central Election Committee for final approval. Normally not more than two names per seat are sent before the CEC,” said the AICC functionary.
“The CEC meeting could be called anytime now. Maybe the end of February or beginning of March. It is for the party chief to decide,” CEC member TS Singh Deo told this channel. According to party insiders, there has been discussions around declaring the first list of candidates which are party seats and where there is no dispute over candidature in March to send a positive signal that the Congress is ready for the coming national polls.
The Congress had won 52/543 seats in 2019 polls and was planning to announce the candidates there in the first list. For the remaining seats, approvals would come in phases depending upon the poll dates announced by the Election Commission in March.
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