Congress gets aggressive ahead of Lok Sabha polls; calls all coordinators to Delhi

The Congress is gearing up for 2024 Lok Sabha polls and has invited all the 500 Lok Sabha coordinators appointed recently on January 11 and 12in New Delhi to discuss poll preparations and issue appropriate instructions. Reports ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri

New Delhi:The Congress is getting aggressive ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections while playing its part as the anchor of the 28-member INDIA alliance.

According to party insiders, while the Congress strategists are going to press for the 2009 Lok Sabha results to work out a seat sharing pact with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in Uttar Pradesh and push for induction of Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) during seat sharing talks on Jan 12, party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and former chief Rahul Gandhi have called all the 500 Lok Sabha coordinators to New Delhi on January 11 to instruct them on how to prepare for the coming national polls across the country.

"We have invited all the 500 Lok Sabha coordinators appointed recently on January 11 and 12 to discuss poll preparations and issue appropriate instructions to them. We will do everything possible for the opposition alliance," All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary organization KC Venugopal told ETV Bharat.

The Congress five-member national alliance panel will talk to the SP and RLD leaders on January 12 to give a final shape to the seat-sharing talks for the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh. According to party insiders, the Congress strategists are claiming 22 seats that the party had won in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, its best scenario in Uttar Pradesh in decades.

The seats were Amethi, Rae Bareli, Akbarpur, Bahraich, Barabanki, Dhaurahra, Dumariyaganj, Faizabad, Farrukhabad, Gonda, Kanpur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Kushinagar, Moradabad, Sultanpur, Shravasti, Pratapgarh, Unnav, Jhansi and Maharajganj.

The Congress managers are also citing that the grand old party was second on around 12 parliamentary seats in 2009 polls and hence should get them in 2024 as well. The SP won 23 parliamentary seats in 2009, 5 in 2019 and has 111 out of 403 MLAs in the state assembly but is not okay with the grand old party’s claims citing the Congress has just 1 out of 80 MP seats and 2 out of 403 MLA seats in Uttar Pradesh.

Another sticking point is over the induction of BSP into the opposition alliance to take on the BJP and get the crucial Dalit votes in the process, said party insiders, adding that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has red flagged the entry of Mayawati into the INDIA alliance.

"See, this is an election to save democracy. Hence, all the secular forces must come together against the BJP whether it is Congress, SP, RLD or BSP or any other outfit," AICC in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Avinash Pande told ETV Bharat.

Party insiders said as the Congress and SP vote banks are the same and workers of both parties have been fighting it out on the ground, pushing the alliance in high-stakes Uttar Pradesh is challenging.

"We hope all issues will be resolved mutually soon," said Pande, expressing hope about the outcome of the crucial January 12 meeting between the alliance leaders.

The Congress is also preparing for Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' which will spend 11 days in Uttar Pradesh and pass through around 20 parliamentary constituencies sometime in February. However, even as the grand old party managers are flexing their muscles, a section of the party believes that the ground presence of SP will have to be factored in in any seat-sharing formula for the coming parliamentary polls.