Seat-sharing talks in INDIA bloc still hanging after more than 50 days

This year more than dozens of Indian opposition parties formed an alliance called “INDIA” to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in parliamentary elections next year. The INDIA bloc is an alliance of 28 political parties.

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The alliance passed a resolution that said “Seat-sharing arrangements in different states will be initiated immediately and concluded at the earliest in a collaborative spirit of give-and-take”.

However, it’s been 53 days there have been no updates on it.

Two opposition parties have put the onus on the Congress party for the delay.

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Yesterday a senior Congress leader admitted that they have not initiated talks on the sharing formula. According to a report by the Hindustan Times, the grand-old party is waiting for the results of the upcoming assembly elections. The party is anticipating a surge in its seats so that it can have better bargaining power for the 2024 General elections.

HT quoted a leader who said, “If we win 3 or 4 of the 5 states, we will have better elbow room to negotiate seats with our allies. But if we get one or two states, it will spell trouble for us in the seat negotiations”.

Assembly elections are scheduled in five states next month–Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Mizoram.

Last month the coordination committee of the INDIA bloc convened a meeting to discuss formulas for seat sharing for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. As per the report, the seat-sharing formula will be based on the performance of parties in past elections and the strength of the largest party that is a member of the grouping in every state.

However, the bloc has not made any announcement related to seat-sharing so far.

Meanwhile, the BJP has attacked the INDIA bloc saying that the opposition parties allied to defeat the BJP, but it has broken already.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took a jibe at the INDIA bloc saying they were trying to come together in Delhi but were fighting among themselves in the states.

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Chouhan’s remarks came a day after Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav slammed the Congress for not giving seats to the party in Madhya Pradesh despite their talks.

However, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday claimed that the opposition INDIA alliance represents 60 per cent of the country, more than the BJP does.

A Congress strategist has said that the INDIA bloc has enough time as the elections are likely to be held in April. The bloc has divided the states into three categories: A, B, and C for their discussion on seat-sharing.

“A category states are those with pre-existing pacts (Maharashtra, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, J&K). B category states are those where the Congress is the undisputed leader of the INDIA group (MP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh). The C category states are the remaining states, where intense negotiations are expected,” a non-Congress leader told Hindustan Times.

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Updated: 24 Oct 2023, 10:15 AM IST