On a day when senior leaders started seat-sharing talks in some States with partners of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), the Congress on January 7 announced names of observers for 539 Lok Sabha seats across the country.
“The Congress party has just released the list of coordinators covering 539 Parliamentary constituencies with 4 more to come soon. Hain Taiyaar Hum! [We are ready],” Congress communication chief Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.
This comes a day after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, at a press conference in New Delhi on January 6, had asserted that the party would assess every Lok Sabha seat. Though the party hasn’t given out an exact number of Lok Sabha seats it would contest, it is believed to be looking anywhere between 255 and 300 seats.
“We will go and assess each Parliamentary constituency... Ultimately, when the INDIA alliance is there and negotiations are held in each State, the exact number will come out. But, we are trying to put in effort everywhere,” Mr. Kharge had said.
Sources said talks have begun with some parties as the Congress is looking to wrap up the negotiations in the next few days and finalise the seat-sharing formula by the end of the month.
The INDIA bloc plans to field a single Opposition candidate against the BJP in as many Lok Sabha seats as possible for the general election. A five-member committee on seat-sharing - which has Mukul Wasnik as convener and former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel -- has already submitted its recommendation on seat-sharing to Mr. Kharge after internal consultations with various State Congress chiefs.
The most contentious States include Kerala, West Bengal, Delhi and Punjab, where the Congress leadership will find seat-sharing agreement tough. Formal negotiations for seat-sharing with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab and Delhi will begin on Monday, the sources cited above said.
In Punjab, the State units of AAP and Congress are opposed to any kind of seat-sharing arrangement as both the parties have expressed their confidence of doing well in the Lok Sabha election.
In West Bengal, the Congress will have to choose between Trinamool Congress and the Left Front even though both Trinamool and the Left parties are part of the INDIA bloc. In the past one week, Trinamool leaders and Congress’ West Bengal unit chief, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, have got into a war of words.
In Kerala, the Left Democratic Front is the main rival of the Congress-led United Democratic Front that has 19 of the 20 MPs from the State. Any tie-up with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) would mean that the Congress will have to rest or drop some of their sitting MPs.
In Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 Lok Sabha seats, relations between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress have been cold the after SP was not offered any seat by the Congress in the recent Madhya Pradesh Assembly election.
The Congress has pre-poll alliances with parties like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Janata Dal (United) in Bihar, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in Jharkhand and small regional players in Assam but even in these States, the party’s bargaining position has considerably weakened after its loss in the Hindi heartland States of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
