INDIA alliance leaders to meet online on January 13 amid seat-sharing hurdles

Congress has urged the INDIA bloc partners to sort out the issues during an online meeting on January 13. The future plan of action will be decided by the members. Reports ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi:Amid seat-sharing hurdles in states like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Delhi, the Congress has urged the INDIA partners to sort out the issues during an online meeting on January 13 and discuss the future plan of action.

"Yes, a meeting of the INDIA alliance will take place on January 13. Around 14 party leaders are expected to attend the session online. Several key issues and future roadmap are likely to be discussed at the meeting,” a senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) functionary said.

According to party insiders, the Congress’ five-member national alliance committee has met several regional parties like Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Aam Aadmi Party, Shiv Sena UBT, and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) over the past few days to firm up a seat-sharing plan and had planned to meet Trinamool Congress (TMC), Left parties, Janata Dal-United and Rashtriya Janata Dal over the next few days.

However, barring Maharashtra, there is no finality in the talks in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Delhi while tensions have soared between the Congress and the TMC ahead of their proposed alliance meeting for which no date has been fixed yet. According to party insiders, the meeting with SP and RLD for Uttar Pradesh was slated to be held on January 12 but had to be postponed as neither the Congress side was ready, nor the SP.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had been tasked to convince Bajuhan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati to join the opposition alliance and offer 30 parliamentary seats to her but the back-channel talks could not take place. Initially, Akhilesh Yadav had reservations about the induction of Mayawati into the opposition alliance but was later convinced by the Congress managers to convince a reluctant Mayawati.

If Mayawati prefers to remain out, SP can get around 50 seats, Congress 20, and RLD 5 seats, said party insiders, adding that the discussions were very fluid at the moment. The next meeting on the UP alliance is expected after January 15, said the party insiders.

In West Bengal, the Congress managers are miffed that the ruling TMC is offering only 2 out of 42 parliamentary seats to the grand old party which had won six seats during the UPA government at the Centre.

“We already have two seats with us that we won in 2019. Earlier, we had won six seats during the UPA government. The Bengal Congress has a presence across several districts. We should get more seats this time. But that issue is for the high command to decide,” AICC secretary-in-charge of West Bengal BP Singh told ETV Bharat.

According to party insiders, the TMC was unwilling to attend an alliance meeting in Delhi saying that it had already explained the number of positions, whatever it could offer to the grand old party, and its demand of at least one seat each in Meghalaya, Assam and Goa. The initial alliance meeting with AAP leaders had left the fine details of seat-sharing untouched as the regional party was asking for seats in three more states beyond Delhi and Punjab which has miffed the Congress managers.

To make things worse, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's claim that AAP will win all the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state has further riled the Congress managers.

Read More