New Delhi: Upbeat over the INDIA bloc’s prospects of forming a government at the Centre, the Congress has convened a meeting of senior alliance leaders on June 1 to discuss the post-poll strategy, including various permutations and combinations of regional parties, and to formalise the power structure.
“A meeting of senior alliance leaders will be held in Delhi on June 1 to discuss the post-poll scenario. The results will be out on June 4. We must be ready with our strategy,” a senior AICC functionary said.
According to party insiders, the strategy session stems from an internal assessment that the INDIA bloc was in a comfortable position after six phases of polling and would have a simple majority of 272/543 seats required to form a government by the time the final and seventh phase of polling concluded on June 1.
Avinash Pande, AICC in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, said the Congress-Samajwadi Party coordination during the ongoing national polls was unprecedented and was crucial in pushing the alliance.
“I held INDIA bloc coordination meetings on all the 80 seats in UP, including the 17 that we contested and 63 of SP. In all, I covered around 7,000 km over 40 days. This led to unprecedented cooperation between the workers of the two parties. As a result, our alliance will win more than half the seats in the state. The Congress would get 10-12 seats. In my view the INDIA bloc would easily form a government,” Avinash Pande told ETV Bharat.
BM Sandeep Kumar, AICC secretary in-charge of Gujarat, expressed similar views, saying the BJP was not doing well in south India.
“The INDIA bloc will get a simple majority. The situation has changed dramatically over the past five phases and we have one more phase to go. The BJP is not getting more than a dozen seats in South India. They will get 8 seats in Karnataka where they had 25-28 in 2019, 3-4 in Telangana and 1 in Andhra Pradesh. They will get a blank in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. They hoped the Ayodhya temple issue would work in the south but it did not. Having lost the south majorly, they will also suffer a dent in north India where the issues of unemployment and price rise dominated the public discourse,” Sandeep Kumar told ETV Bharat.
“In the northern states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab which will have polls on June 1, the BJP is facing a dent due to angry farmers and youth who are miffed with the Agniveer defence jobs scheme. This was a major issue in Haryana also where polling took place on May 25,” he said.
According to party insiders, the opposition meeting has been called on June 1 as AAP founder and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has to return to jail in the liquor scam case, if he does not get an extension from the top court, on June 2.
“It would be good if he participates in the meeting although the issue of his arrest is not a concern for the alliance which has done well in Delhi,” a senior AICC functionary said. During the conclave, the alliance partners would discuss the parties' probable scores and chalk out a plan of action if the ruling NDA and opposition INDIA bloc were locked in a close fight.
“In case the opposition has to prove its numbers on the floor of the house, we have to prepare a plan to secure the allies as the BJP is known to use unfair means to cobble up numbers,” a senior AICC functionary said. Besides, the role of various regional parties, particularly TMC chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamta Banerjee would be crucial in any post-poll formation, said party insiders.
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