From Delhi to Bihar to Maharashtra, the Congress scrambled to finalise its alliances on Tuesday, a day after the notification for the first phase of voting in the April-May Lok Sabha elections was issued, allowing candidates to start filing nominations.

Suspense continued in Delhi over whether the Congress will join hands with chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar stepped in as a dealmaker, presumably after finalising the details of the alliance between his party and the Congress that are yet to be announced.

In Bihar, Congress leaders familiar with the development said an alliance between the Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and several smaller constituents of the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) will be finalised in the next two days.

But alliance talks between the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Bengal appeared to have failed after the grand old party announced on Monday its candidates from Raiganj and Murshidabad constituencies, the bone of contention between the two sides. Both seats are currently held by the CPI(M).

Analysts have previously commented on the difficulty the Congress seems to be having in finalising previously announced alliances, with the party demanding what some of the analysts see as a disproportionately high number of seats. In Bihar, for instance, where the Congress isn’t particularly strong, the party has been holding out for 11 seats while the RJD is willing to give it a maximum of eight.

On Tuesday, former finance minister Yashwant Sinha tweeted: “Unsolicited advice to Rahul Gandhi, pl finalise your alliances in Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi and elsewhere today. It is already too late.” Last week, Sinha, once one of the senior-most leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and now one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s severest critics, tweeted that the Congress and others seem to be fighting over seats they don’t even hold now while the BJP seems to be willing to give up even seats it currently holds to allies.

PC Chacko, the Congress party’s Delhi incharge, said, “I am in consultation with Congress party leaders in Delhi on the possibilities of forging an alliance with AAP. The Congress Working Committee has decided to align with like-minded parties to defeat the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.”

The final decision, which will be taken by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, is expected soon, he said.

The AAP leadership, which tried hard to form an alliance with the Congress, sent out conflicting signals. “There will be no alliance with the Congress in Delhi. The way Congress has again and again refused an alliance indicates that the party is not interested in defeating the autocratic Modi-Shah rule,” said Gopal Rai, the AAP’s Delhi unit convener, referring to Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

The AAP leader also said the Kejriwal-led party wanted to actively participate in efforts to stitch up an alliance of opposition parties at the national level, but alleged that the “Congress has kept everyone confused”.

In the morning, Gandhi, accompanied by senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge, drove to Pawar’s New Delhi residence where the leaders are believed to have discussed seat-sharing between the Congress and the NCP in Maharashtra. The conversation then shifted to Delhi. Later in the day, Gandhi left for the north-east for an election campaign.

Soon after, Pawar reached out to Sanjay Singh, a Rajya Sabha member of the AAP. Singh did not get into the details of his conversation with Pawar, but stressed that “this is the time to save” the country. “The party [he was referring to the Congress] can be saved later....there will be enough time to save the party. Right now the attempt should be to save the country and democracy,” he said.

In mid-February, Pawar hosted a meeting of top opposition leaders, an event attended by both Gandhi and Kejriwal. There were suggestions that the two leaders should join hands for the seven seats in Delhi, which will vote on May 12.

Gandhi, 48, has always been aware that many of his party’s Delhi leaders are against any alliance with the AAP, which has repeatedly targeted the Congress over a number issues, including corruption.

But the February meet set off some rethinking within the Congress. Over the following weeks, many Congress leaders, including senior leader Ajay Maken, who once campaigned against a tie-up with the AAP, appeared to be on board.

But a section within the Congress has been steadfast in its opposition to the alliance. Last week, when the Congress leadership decided to conduct a survey on what party workers thought about the idea, Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit did not hide her disappointment. She told reporters that she did not know about the survey.

Dikshit followed it up with a letter to the Congress president, also signed by the city unit’s three working presidents, warning the party that an alliance with the AAP would hurt the party in the long run.

But this wasn’t the only letter written. Supporting the alliance, five former Delhi Congress chiefs and 15 block presidents wrote to Gandhi.

“I am leaving the decision to the party high command. I will go by whatever they decide. I have already conveyed what my personal views are on the alliance. So we will have to see what they decide now,” Dikshit said.

The Congress has been kept out of the coalition of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the RLD in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha.

In Bihar, the Congress wants 11 of the total 40 seats in the state. Its ally, the RJD is expected to get 20 seats and the remaining seats will go to smaller allies.

Among them are the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), led by former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha; Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular); and the Sharad Yadav-led Loktantrik Janata Dal.

In Maharashtra, the Congress and Pawar’s NCP have almost finalised the alliance. While the Congress is expected to get 26 seats, the remaining 22 will go to the NCP. The two parties fought separately in 2014.

The two parties have also identified the constituencies they will fight. The only hurdle is bringing smaller allies on board. A senior Congress leader said these problems, too, will be resolved soon.

In Bengal, the Left announced candidates for 38 out of the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies , leaving out four seats the Congress won in 2014. Left Front chairperson Biman Bose said if the Congress did not withdraw its candidates in the two seats at the centre of the controversy, his bloc will go ahead and name candidates for them too.

First Published: Mar 20, 2019 06:26 IST