BJP’s defeat spurs Opp. to step up alliance talks

Rahul talks to Pawar, bid to woo Mamata

Buoyed by the triumph of the experimental alliance of the SP- BSP that won the Gorakhpur and Phulpur the Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, hectic parleys have begun in the Opposition camp for stitching together a similar grouping for success in the 2019 general elections.

Shortly after the results of the three bypolls were announced on Wednesday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi held a meeting with Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) chief Sharad Pawar in the national capital. The two leaders are reported to have discussed firming up the Congress- NCP alliance in Maharashtra.

Speculation is also rife that the Congress is trying to rope in the Trinamul Congress through Mr Pawar, who is scheduled to meet TMC chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on March 27- 28 in the national capital.

So far the TMC chief has

not shown any inclination of coming under the Congress umbrella. She has repeatedly spoken of a federal Third Front and reached out to many regional parties like the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the DMK and the TDP.

Sources said that Mr Pawar is expected to host a meeting of Opposition parties on March 27. Senior NCP leader Praful Patel said that the Congress and all

Opposition parties will invited for the meeting whose contours will be finalised by next week. Senior political leaders feel that the run- up to 2019 will see a tug of war between the Congress and regional parties over leadership of any Opposition alliance. After the next Lok Sabha election, the Congress is expecting a 2004- like situation when the UPA- led by it came to power. The regional parties, on the other hand, are looking at a 1996 redux when the Congress supported a United Front- led government headed by Janata Dal’s H. D. Deve Gowda.

The Congress, which is beginning its first plenary session under new president Rahul Gandhi on Friday, is expected to spell out its stand on alliances with other parties in a political resolution to be adopted at the end of the three- day session.

Sources said that the political resolution is expected to talk about the drop in popularity of “Brand Modi.”