New Delhi: The Congress on Monday said it is determined to take on the BJP along with regional parties ahead of the 2024 national elections and has therefore called a meeting of all states in-charges to discuss seat-sharing on December 30 and 31.
The five-member Congress national alliance committee including former chief ministers Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel and senior leaders Salman Khurshid, Mukul Wasnik and Mohan Prakash, will interact with the respective AICC state in-charges, state unit chiefs and CLP leaders during the 2-day meeting to obtain their feedback on seat-sharing prospects with the regional parties and also to discuss their preparedness for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The key states where alliances will matter are Uttar Pradesh (80 seats), Bihar (40), Maharashtra (48), Jharkhand (14), Punjab (13), Delhi (7), Gujarat (26), Assam (14), Jammu and Kashmir (6), Tamil Nadu (39) and West Bengal (42). According to party insiders, the alliance panel will prepare a Congress blueprint for nationwide alliances which will then be discussed within the opposition grouping INDIA and firmed up by January next year.
The move comes days after Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge revamped the AICC team to prepare the organization for the 2024 polls. On Dec 21, the Congress Working Committee resolved to push the INDIA alliance as an effective bulwark against BJP.
“The Congress is committed to taking its alliance partners together to put up a united front against the BJP. There is no problem among the allies and discussions over various issues including seat-sharing had been going on for a while. Of course, things will move in a more planned way from now on. The seat-sharing will be worked out smoothly with the allies,” AICC in charge of Uttar Pradesh Avinash Pande told ETV Bharat.
Pande noted that though the SP and RLD were already on board, the BSP too would join the INDIA alliance in UP. “I hope that all the parties in UP will come together to fight the BJP’s divisive agenda. The 2024 fight is to defend the Constitution and safeguard democracy in the country. The opposition alliance is going to focus on public issues like unemployment, price rise which the BJP does not want to discuss,” said Pande.
Pande, a former in charge of Jharkhand said that as the Congress, JMM and RJD alliance is ruling the tribal state, working out Lok Sabha seat sharing will not be a problem. AICC secretary in charge of Bihar Ajay Kapoor said the JD-U, RJD, Congress, Left alliance is ruling the state hence seat-sharing will be smooth there as well. Kharge recently appointed Congress alliance panel member Mohan Prakash as in charge of Bihar as he likes to maintain a low profile and would be able to deal with alliance partners like Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad without any hassles.
AICC secretary in charge of Maharashtra Ashish Dua said that “seat-sharing in the state would not be much of a problem as the Shiv Sena UBT, NCP, Congress alliance ruled the state from 2019 to 2022 when the grouping was toppled by the BJP which engineered a split in Shiv Sena and later in NCP. The Sena and NCP rebels have the MLAs but the voters are with Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar,” said Dua.
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