Congress core group discusses contours of alliances in 7 states

The Congress on Monday began internal consultations on state-specific alliances for the upcoming assembly polls and also the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, a party functionary said.

A committee on alliances, which includes senior leaders such as AK Antony, Ashok Gehlot, Ahmed Patel and Ghulam Nabi Azad, discussed the possibility of tie-ups in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Karnataka, Odisha, Jharkhand and Maharashtra. The meeting was held in absence of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who is on a two-day visit to his Lok Sabha constituency, Amethi.

Each state was allotted different time slots for presentations on prospective alliance partners, said the Congress functionary familiar with the developments.

Apart from state chiefs and legislative party leaders, general secretaries and state in-charges attended the day-long deliberations. The panel will again meet on Tuesday to discuss alliances in Rajasthan, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Four states – Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram – are going to the polls in November-December.

The Election Commission will soon take a call on holding the assembly elections in Telangana, where chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao dissolved the assembly on September 6, nearly seven months ahead of schedule.

The discussions on Chhattisgarh came days after Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati announced a tie-up with Ajit Jogi’s Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) following the breakdown of alliance talks with the Congress.

As per the seat-sharing agreement, the BSP will contest 35 seats and the JCC remaining 55.

Mayawati has also announced her party’s candidates for 22 seats in Madhya Pradesh. The move has kept alive the hopes for a BSP-Congress seat-sharing deal.

The BSP is said to have demanded 40-50 seats in Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress was willing to concede 20-22. Similarly in Chhattisgarh, the BSP had demanded 15 seats but the Congress was not ready to give more than nine, said a functionary.

In Bihar, the party leaders said the Congress’s ties with the Rashtriya Janata Dal were strong and also did not rule out the possibility of some smaller parties joining the alliance.

Maharashtra leaders stressed the need for an alliance with the BSP and expressed confidence that the tie-up with the Nationalist Congress Party and other smaller parties will oust the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

In Odisha, the state leaders backed a tie-up with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the Left parties in their respective pockets of influence.

Congress leaders from Jharkhand maintained that the alliance with the JMM and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) will do well on the ground.

Representatives from Karnataka insisted that the tie-up with the Janata Dal (Secular) needs to be strengthened to keep the BJP in check.

Congress leaders are also hopeful that the BSP chief will not rock the Opposition boat in Uttar Pradesh and continue to be a part of the mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) for the 2019 elections.

First Published: Sep 25, 2018 07:17 IST