New Delhi: Senior Congress leaders Saturday said the party was indispensable to any opposition alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and should assert its position to get the best bargain in seat-sharing with allies.
“The seat-sharing consultations are happening within the Congress. Later, such talks would be held with the alliance partners in January 2024 and completed soon. Seat-sharing is never easy. It will take time. But one thing is clear that no government can be formed without the Congress. This must be kept in mind by everyone during the seat-sharing talks,” AICC secretary in charge of Maharashtra Ashish Dua told ETV Bharat.
The AICC functionary’s reaction came at a time when the Congress’ five-member national alliance committee is discussing seat-sharing prospects with several state leaders, including from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Bihar.
After completing the inter-party discussions, the five-member panel comprising Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel, Salman Khurshid, Mukul Wasnik and Mohan Prakash, will brief former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and incumbent Mallikarjun Kharge over the seat-sharing plan which will then be discussed with the alliance partners in January.
As he asserted the Congress position, Dua played down the reported remarks of Shiv Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut who said the grand old party will have to start the seat-sharing talks from scratch. For many in the Maharashtra Congress, the remarks of the ally came as a surprise as the Shiv Sena UBT, NCP and Congress were in power in the western state from 2019 to 2022 and have been together since the coalition government was toppled in 2022.
“See, I don’t think we should read too much into that statement. Raut is a spokesperson of his party and he has to make political posturing for his party audience,” said Dua. The AICC functionary noted that the alliance was intact in Maharashtra but stressed that the Congress was on a stronger wicket and must therefore get its due share. “The ground level situation has changed in Maharashtra. Effectively there are several parties in the state if the splinter groups of Shiv Sena and NCP are taken into consideration. The Congress is the strongest of all and must get the largest number of parliamentary seats. The allies also understand this,” said Dua.
Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats. In 2019, the Congress and NCP were in alliance but now there are three partners including Shiv Sena UBT. “The deciding factor would be the winnability of a party candidate on a particular seat. Due to multiple parties, the dynamics of every Lok Sabha seat has changed,” said Dua. According to party insiders, seat-sharing negotiations would be done on the same basis in both West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh where the TMC and the SP are the strong regional players.
“The Congress is fairly strong in the state. We discussed the Congress position vis a vis our allies and also how to use our strength to ensure victory of the alliance candidates wherever needed,” AICC general secretary in charge of UP Avinash Pande told ETV Bharat. “We knew the ground level situation but the feedback from our party colleagues was excellent on where things stand in UP,” former union minister Salman Khurshid said.
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