In 2019 national elections, party contested 421 seats and won 52
A MID PULLS AND pressures from allies of the INDIA bloc, the Congress leadership Thursday told state units the party would focus on 255 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, signalling perhaps its readiness to contest in a lesser number of seats than in the 2019 national elections.
It also announced that seat sharing talks with INDIA partners would begin immediately.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi along with AICC general secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal met members of the party’s five-member national alliance committee which had held extensive discussions with state units over the last few days. The committee submitted its report to the leadership and was given the go ahead to start talks with constituents of the INDIA bloc.
Sources said Kharge told a separate meeting of AICC general secretaries and state in-charges, state Congress presidents, and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leaders earlier in the day that the party would focus on 255 seats. Rahul Gandhi too attended the meeting. State leaders read it as an indication the party was prepared to contest in a lesser number of seats this time to accommodate parties of the INDIA alliance.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the party contested in 421 seats and won 52. It was part of alliances in a handful of states — with the RJD in Bihar, NCP in Maharashtra, JD(S) in Karnataka, JMM in Jharkhand, and the DMK in Tamil Nadu. Accordingly, it had contested in only nine out of the 40 seats in Bihar, seven of the 14 seats in Jharkhand, 21 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 25 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra, and nine of the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu. In Uttar Pradesh, it contested in 70 of the 80 seats.
The Congress knows that seat sharing is going to be fraught with difficulties in some states, especially Delhi, Punjab, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
While the AAP has signalled it was willing to have a seat sharing pact with the Congress in Punjab, the state unit of the Congress believes any truck with AAP, which is in government in the state, would be suicidal. The Bengal unit too is against any alliance with the Trinamool Congress. In UP, the Samajwadi Party had signalled it would contest in 65 seats, leaving just 15 for the Congress and the RLD.
The party has decided to hold talks with INDIA parties on a state-to-state basis. In other words, it means the Congress would hold talks with the AAP, for instance, on seat sharing in Delhi and Punjab separately, as also states like Gujarat and Haryana where the Arvind Kejrwial-led party claims to have some influence.
The same will apply with the Left as also other parties which would want to contest in more than one state under the banner of INDIA alliance.
“There is already an alliance which is called the INDIA alliance. And we will be talking to parties with influence in various areas and keeping their influence in view, we will have our dialogue. And certainly it will be a state-wise discussion and we will see how to move forward,” senior Congress leader Mukul Wasnik, the convenor of the alliance committee, said after the meeting at Kharge’s residence.
