The Communist Party of India (CPI) was in talks with the Congress for a tie-up in Chhattisgarh, but the grand old party’s lukewarm response forced the former to explore other options and finally to tie up with the Ajit Jogi-Mayawati alliance in the State, sources in the CPI said.
The party will be fighting two seats, including Dantewara, in the elections to the 90-seat Chhattisgarh Assembly to be held in November.
Talks fruitless
According to sources, senior CPI leaders had a series of meetings with the Chhattisgarh in-charge of the Congress, P.L. Punia, but the talks were fruitless, since the Congress was not keen to concede the seats the CPI wanted.
Instead of clearly saying a no to the tie-up, the Congress kept dithering, sources in the CPI said.
“We explored all the possibilities for an alliance not just with the Congress. We wanted to contest the constituencies where we have a strong base. In those seats, the Congress had candidates who have been winning for four times and they were not agreeable to giving us those seats,” CPI leader D. Raja said. The CPI will now be fighting from Dantewara and Konta — in both seats, the party was in third position in 2013. Currently, the seats are held by the Congress.
Mr. Raja rejected the Congress allegation that Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J) leader Ajit Jogi was indirectly helping the BJP by cutting into their own votes. “If the Congress is keen to defeat the BJP, they should have conceded these seats. As a political party while our emphasis is to defeat the BJP, we would also like to contest in our strongholds,” he added.
The CPI has influence in Bastar, but in the rest of the State, it has very little influence. In the 2013 Assembly elections, the party fought 13 seats and lost deposit in 12 of them. They got nearly 5 per cent vote in the seats they fought.