Oppn could unite via post-poll tie-ups: Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress believes that an all-encompassing, pan-India opposition unity before 2024 polls is difficult, and a section of the parties claiming anti-BJP credentials would have to be roped in after the Lok Sabha elections.
While the party has welcomed JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar's appeal to Congress to green signal his plan to corral the opposition parties into a camp, strategists are counselling patience and restrained ambitions in the present scenario.
Sources said overlapping turfs of some political parties, which have turned them into competitors for years, pose the biggest hurdle to sewing up a state-by-state airtight pre-poll alliance.
As a result, Congress strategists propose the 2009 model when Congress went for "state-specific alliances", while having a broad understanding about a united opposition-led "progressive government" in opposition to BJP. This was a departure from 2004 when a Congress-led pre-poll alliance took on the might of Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA combine, and trumped it.
"CPM and Congress will fight each other in Kerala, Congress cannot tie up with BRS in Telangana, TMC cannot join hands with CPM in West Bengal. These pinpricks would remain and that is why our pre-poll ambitions should be tailored to suit this reality," a Congress leader said.
In contrast, sources said knitting statewise tie-ups would serve a smoother alternative to the objective of bringing down the BJP tally in national polls, citing the alliances Congress has with JMM in Jharkhand, DMK-plus in Tamil Nadu, NCP-Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, UDF in Kerala, JDU-RJD in Bihar.
As an example, a Congress office-bearer said the party cannot be expected to "surrender our identity" in Telangana, by joining hands with bitter rival BRS of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. But within this framework, an arrangement to leave seats in states where Congress is non-existent can be an option, like in UP if an open alliance with SP does not fructify.