Rahul Gandhi is embarking on another journey across the country. INDIA bloc partners are discussing the sharing of seats for Lok Sabha elections. But it faces some big challenges
Our Bureau
New Delhi
The grand old party of India is preparing for the big battle of 2024. For the Congress Party, it is now-or-never moment. And the party is working on all fronts possible to seriously challenge the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Intensifying preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Congress top leadership, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi on Thursday conducted meetings with the members of the party’s Alliance Committee and Manifesto Committee here in the national capital.
The grand old party went into a huddle two times, first holding a meeting of Congress Alliance Committee at the party chief Kharge’s residence and later a meeting of Congress Manifesto Committee at the AICC headquarters which is headed by party Rajya Sabha MP P Chidambaram.
Briefing about the Alliance Committee meeting, committee convener Mukul Wasnik said that in the meeting, a discussion regarding seat-sharing of Congress within the INDIA bloc was held. “The Congress Alliance Committee held deliberations with leaders from various states within the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA bloc) in the last several days. Today, their details were given to party president Kharge, former president Rahul Gandhi and Organization General Secretary KC Venugopal. Now, soon Congress will hold state-wise discussions with other allies of INDIA bloc,” Mukul Wasnik said.
Meanwhile, Chidambaram, while informing about the Manifesto Committee meeting, said, “This was the first meeting of the Manifesto Committee. There will be a meeting again next week regarding the manifesto of Congress for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Preliminary views were exchanged in today’s meeting.”
Party leader Jairam Ramesh said the meeting on Thursday had two issues on its agenda — preparations for the general elections this year and the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, which is to be launched by Rahul from Imphal on January 14.
Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ will start from Imphal on January 14 and cover a distance of 6,713 kilometers, straddling 100 Lok Sabha constituencies and 337 assembly segments and covering 110 districts, Congress general secretary in-charge Communications, Jairam Ramesh said on Thursday. The march will culminate in Mumbai in March 20 or 21.
Ramesh said that there was a unanimous view that the momentum generated by the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the transformation it brought to Indian politics, needed to be carried forward. “The Yatra will start from Imphal on January 14 and will conclude in Mumbai on March 20 or 21. It will cover a distance of 6,713 kilometers, mostly by bus. Rahul Gandhi will also walk on some stretches along the Yatra route. In the 15 states, it will cover 100 Lok Sabha constituencies and 337 assembly segments involving 110 districts,” he said.
Referring to the theme ‘Nyay’ of the ‘Yatra’ he said, it had been drawn from the Constitution, which, in the Preamble, speaks for ‘Justice’ including social, economic and political justice for the people of the country.
“The ‘Nyay Yatra’ will spend a maximum of eleven days in Uttar Pradesh where it will travel a distance of 1,074 kilometers, covering 20 districts. The 15 states that will be covered by the ‘Nyay-Yatra’ include Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra,” he added.
With this move – planned on the lines of Bharat Jodo Yatra last year – the Congress is expecting to dent Modi’s image across the country while promoting its own narrative. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday took a dig at the Modi government and said that it had “not done anything in the last ten years which could be termed as a milestone”. “Politics of arrogance and lies comes with an expiry date”, he said while referring to the BJP government at the Centre.
Kharge recalled how under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, the United Progressive Alliance defeated the BJP led National Democratic Alliance 20 years ago, in 2004. He said at that time every worker across the country had worked hard to defeat the NDA and now time has come when the workers need to work with the same zeal and dedication once again. Kharge said time has come for the “same dedication, commitment, zeal and hard work” to ensure the party’s victory in 2024 general elections.
While Congress is trying hard to make the INDIA bloc challenge the BJP-led NDA, it is facing a lot of challenges. Sending out tell-tale hints of a further deepening of cracks in the Opposition bloc — INDIA — as the Lok Sabha elections near, the West Bengal unit of the Congress on Thursday took a swipe at the Trinamool Congress, blaming the ruling party in the state for the lack of progress in seat-sharing talks.
Further opening up fissures in the Opposition bloc at a time when divergent voices over seat-sharing have come to the fore, Congress MP and the party’s West Bengal chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Thursday hit out at TMC Supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, voice doubts over her intent to go into a seat allotment with the grand old party in the state.
Addressing a press conference in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal on Thursday, Adhir also scoffed at Mamata’s rumored offer of 2 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats to the Congress, saying those constituencies are already with the Congress and his party was quite capable of retaining them in the polls that are likely to be scheduled in the summer.
A key constituent of the INDIA bloc, the TMC has reportedly proposed 2 seats for the Congress to contest in the general elections. In a further dig at the ruling party in the state, Adhir said he needed no favor from the TMC as his party was quite capable of going solo in the state.
But Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule has ruled out any internal confusion on the over-the-seat sharing issue for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, saying that a lot of things about seat sharing were clarified in a meeting between Sonia Gandhi, Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar. This comes amid a tug-of-war between Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT) over seat sharing.
“There is no confusion internally. There was a meeting between Sonia Gandhi, Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar in Delhi 15 days ago. A lot of things about seat sharing were clarified in that meeting. The information will be officially announced in the next 8-10 days,” Sule told reporters on Monday.
“There will be ups and downs in the seat-sharing formula as we are in alliance, so this will happen,” Sule said.
When asked about the role of Prakash Ambedkar in the INDIA bloc, she said that he will definitely play an important role in the alliance. Earlier, former Lok Sabha MP Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr BR Ambedkar, reiterated his interest in joining the MVA and INDIA alliance ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
Emphasizing that ‘defeating Modi should be the only priority for MVA’, Prakash Ambedkar in his letter mentioned that the “VBA desires that the parties within the MVA- Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), Nationalist Congress Party, Indian National Congress and VBA should fight the upcoming Lok Sabha elections together and on an equal number of seats as equal partners.”
Amid debate and discussion in the MVA over seat sharing between parties of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the Shiv Sena (UBT) has demanded 23 seats out of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.
In the national capital, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday spelled out his party’s vision to expand organization across the country and declared that the party would fiercely campaign for elections and secure all the seats as a member of the INDIA bloc.
Speaking at the virtual meeting of the National Council and National Executive of the Aam Aadmi Party, Kejriwal said, “AAP will form its organization in the entire country because, without a strong organization, it cannot win elections.”
“AAP is part of the INDIA bloc, we will contest elections strongly on whatever seats we get and will win all the seats,” added the party chief.
While the Congress party tries to solidify its presence across the country, many of its alliance partners want to do the same. This could be the biggest challenge for the party as it prepares for the battle of its life in 2024.
