INDIA bloc battles impasse on seat talks, desertions before elections
Although the nomination process for the first phase of polling of the general elections has started, the Congress and Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal have not been able to reach a deal on sharing seats in Bihar, one of the key north Indian states with 40 Lok Sabha seats.
The RJD has unilaterally announced candidates for all four seats going to the polls in the first phase. Congress insiders pointed out that the inclusion of Pappu Yadav, alias Rajesh Ranjan, into their fold has miffed the RJD brass and seat-sharing talks have come to a virtual standstill.
A senior official close to RJD said, “Pappu was all set to join RJD but Congress poached him.” The Yadav community is considered a dedicated vote bank of the RJD and Rajesh Ranjan, a Yadav, has always been an adversary of the RJD. In West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress pulled the plug on opposition INDIA bloc and none of its leaders joined Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra despite Congress’ request to CM Mamata Banerjee to join it. The
Congress insisted that Banerjee was invited but she said, “As a gesture of courtesy, did they (Congress) let me know that they are coming to Bengal for the yatra? I am not aware of it.”
If Bihar and West Bengal paint a fragmented picture of the INDIA bloc at this stage, then at the national level “there is limited coordination between the allies,” said a non-Congress leader who declined to be named.
The INDIA grouping held its last summit in December. Now, with the alliance facing teething problems in many states, there is no sign of a structured mechanism of crisis management.
Even the coordination committee that was formed to tackle such issues has not met since September. In Maharashtra, where there is an existing alliance between Shiv Sena (UBT), the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP and the Congress, the parties have started announcing candidates individually, but the three parties are yet to come together to formally announce a seat-sharing pact.
“The five-phase Maharashtra election starts from April 19. It would have been better for the political optics to have a formal seat-sharing in place,” a Congress leader from Mumbai said, seeking anonymity.
In states such as Uttar Pradesh, where the Congress has managed to clinch a seat pact with the Samajwadi Party, which is considered a major gain for the INDIA group, there hasn’t been a single joint rally so far of the two allies.“It is a difficult situation. We have distributed seats but there is no cohesive effort to reach the people. Without joint campaign, how do we transfer each other’s votes for our candidates? g,” said a Congress leader from UP.
The only time the coordination committee of the INDIA bloc met was on September 13 last year. In that meeting, hosted at NCP supremo Sharad Pawar’s residence, Congress general secretary
KC Venugopal had announced, “A series of public rallies of INDIA allies starting with one in Bhopal would be held.” He also said, “The seat sharing would be finalised at the earliest.”
In the past six months, the bloc of 40 parties that rules nine states has not been able to arrange a single rally with all constituents in attendance. The bloc, once a solid pack of 26 parties, has considerably weakened after Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar pulled the plug on the alliance in Bihar and Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Chowdhury switched sides to join the National Democratic alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party. In states where the Congress still has possible partners, the shape of the seat pacts is still sketchy.
“There is no centre to hold the alliance together, since the Congress itself is rife with issues. There is no overarching ideology that acts as a glue as well. The ongoing desertions of various leaders to join BJP only adds to the woes. The diffidence about winnability is making allies look after their selfinterest rather than seeing themselves collectively as a part of an opposition coalition,” said Banuchandar Nagarajan, an analyst.