The tricky issue of seat sharing is set to be on top of the agenda when the INDIA alliance holds its meeting on Tuesday in the national capital to work out the modalities of a joint fight against the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The meeting will take place after a gap of around three months since the parties of the opposition bloc met last in Mumbai. This is the fourth time that the top leaders of the INDIA alliance parties will meet.
With the meeting coming in the backdrop of the Congress' defeat in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and with little time left to kickstart the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls due to be held in April-May 2024, alliance leaders are keen that a sense of urgency and purpose is conveyed through the decisions that they arrive at on Tuesday.
According to sources, some alliance leaders have conveyed that they would want to finalise the seat sharing arrangement by the end of this month. Earlier, some regional leaders had been keen that the seat sharing discussions be wrapped up by October 31. However, with the Congress prioritising the Assembly elections over alliance discussions, there has been no development in this regard.
The results of the Assembly elections are expected to reduce the bargaining power of the Congress as it enters into alliance talks. The party had failed to reach an electoral understanding with the Samajwadi Party and the Left in the just concluded state polls.
Also, the alliance has failed to plan joint rallies of its leaders. A joint public meeting was scheduled to be held in Bhopal but it was cancelled since the state unit of the Congress was not keen on a distraction from its poll efforts. Also, the issues of choosing a convenor or setting up a secretariat to coordinate the common campaign of the leaders have not been dealt with.
It is felt that the parties will find it challenging to agree on a seat-sharing arrangement in states like Punjab, Delhi, West Bengal and Kerala. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on the eve of the meeting, at an event in Punjab, appealed to the people of the state that they should ensure the victory of the Aam Aadmi Party in all 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The state unit of the Congress in Punjab is strongly opposed to allying with the ruling AAP since it sniffs a chance at a comeback in the general elections and is the main opposition party in the state.
In Delhi, the Congress is in a weaker position, but party leaders realise that in the parliamentary elections, the party has done better than the AAP and would want to bargain hard. In West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress has been pitted against the Congress and the Left electorally, and the Congress especially finds itself in a tight spot over the question of alliance in the state. In Kerala, in all likelihood, INDIA allies will face off, with the Congress and the Left occupying the opposite poles in the state's politics.
The opposition parties had first met in Patna on June 23. The second meeting took place in Bengaluru on July 17-18 and the third was held in Mumbai on August 31- September 1.
