The INDIA alliance will hold its fourth meeting in Delhi on Tuesday, the first since the Congress suffered a setback across the Hindi heartland in the recently concluded Assembly elections. On the table will be seat sharing, a joint campaign blueprint and redrawing the joint strategy to take on the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The opposition bloc is now forced to redraw its game plan to take on BJP as caste census, the Congress's poll plank during the Assembly elections, failed to click with voters. The regional parties are likely to give their input towards devising a master plan.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has said that the bloc would move forward with a positive agenda and will highlight people's issues in the Lok Sabha polls. However, with just months left for the 2024 elections, there is little time for the opposition bloc to revamp its election narrative to counter a stronger BJP under Prime Minister Modi.
As for seat sharing, the regional parties want the Congress to start the seat-sharing talks so they can begin preparations ahead of the polls. Some alliance leaders have conveyed that they would want to finalise the seat-sharing arrangement by the end of this month.
The results of the Assembly elections are expected to reduce the bargaining power of 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.
However, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday expressed confidence that the alliance will iron out all issues, including over seat-sharing, to defeat the BJP. She also dismissed suggestions that the alliance has lost time in putting things in order, saying "it is better late than never". Banerjee expressed confidence that a three-way alliance is very much possible in West Bengal between her TMC, the Congress and the Left.
There are also reports that the SP will demand discussion on seat sharing and the way Congress sidelined it in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections will reflect on its approach.
Meanwhile, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said the committees that were formed earlier have been working behind the scenes and preparations were being made for the polls. Yadav said everyone in the opposition ranks will play its part and asserted that regional parties are very strong. "Wherever there are regional parties, the BJP is nowhere to be seen. Most of the regional parties are with INDIA bloc," the RJD leader told reporters.
JD(U) leader Kumar and Shiv Sena (UBT) supremo Uddhav Thackeray arrived in the national capital on Monday evening for the bloc's meeting.
