To make INDIA work, Congress will have to make sacrifices for new allies

NEW DELHI: India’s grand-old-party – the Congress – needs to have heart of a big brother to make sacrifices in the political crucial states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, Bihar and Maharashtra for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha election to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at bay.

To its credit, the Congress has thus far managed to hold two big opposition meetings – one in Bihar and the other one in Karnataka. The highlight of these meetings was the renaming of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to ‘Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance’ or INDIA.

The Congress had contested on 421 seats in 2019 Lok Sabha elections and was in a direct fight with the BJP at 373 seats. BJP had contested the 2019 polls on 435 seats while rest of the seats were contested by its alliance partners. However, the grand old party could manage to win only 52 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections despite former party chief Rahul Gandhi running an aggressive campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Four years later, in 2023, the Congress has brought 26 opposition parties together to take on the BJP-led NDA government after suffering two back-to-back massive defeats in the Lok Sabha elections. These parties include those who have a strong base in some of states while others don’t have any MLAs or MPs in the state assemblies or the Parliament.

A party leader, who was part of both the opposition meetings in Bihar and Karnataka, said that bringing the 26 opposition parties together is to save democracy and the Constitution which is under attack. He said that the idea is to stop the split in the vote of the opposition parties against the BJP. He said that all these parties have come together to stop the juggernaut of the BJP-led NDA which managed to win 353 seats out of the 542 seats. The BJP had won 303 seats in 2019 polls. The party leader said that a detailed discussion is going on in the party looking at the seats it contested directly against the BJP in 2019 and it will still try to fight on at least on 400 seats across the country.

Meanwhile, a party source said that despite posing for a happy picture after the meeting, the road ahead is not much smooth as it requires a lot of serious talks which involves sacrifice in the states where the regional parties are its main rivals. He said that the optics of posing for photos together will only work if the parties are ready for sacrifices, adjustments and seat sharing with bigger heart, which will require very delicate deliberations.

The source said that in six of the major political crucial states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Maharashtra which sends over 280 MPs in the Lok Sabha, talks need to be balanced. In most of these states, the Opposition parties, especially the regional parties have their strong presence where the Congress is one of the main rival party, the source pointed out adding that now for the grand old party to come together as one, even if for a higher purpose, will not be an easy task.

Source said that discussing seat sharing with Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar will not be a cakewalk for the Congress as both of them are very hard negotiators. Also, Congress may face tough time during negotiations in Delhi and Punjab. The Congress and the AAP both scored a nil in the national capital in 2019 polls while BJP won all seven seats. On the other hand, for all its accommodative spirit, the Congress will want its pound of flesh and demand seats in all the states from its alliance partners in the states of West Bengal and Maharashtra. Maharashtra sends 48 MPs to Lok Sabha whereas West Bengal has 42 parliamentary seats. IANS

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