Congress begins INDIA seat sharing talks; appoints coordinators for Lok Sabha seats

According to sources, the RJD offered five seats — four Lok Sabha and one Rajya Sabha — to the Congress. The state unit of the Congress is insisting on eight seats. According to sources in the RJD and JD(U), the parties can look at two options — 17 seats to RJD and JD(U) each, four to Congress and two to CPI(ML); or, 16 seats each to RJD and JD(U), five to Congress, two to CPI(ML) and one to CPI.

Sources said the Congress alliance committee will meet AAP leaders Atishi, Sandeep Pathak and Saurabh Bhardwaj on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Congress appointed Parliamentary coordinators for 539 Lok Sabha constituencies but has roped in senior leaders in states where it will go alone. So in Telangana, Chief Minister Reddy has been made coordinator of Chevella and Mahabubnagar seats, both of which are with the TRS now. Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu would be in charge of Secunderabad and Hyderabad, the former represented by union minister G Kishan Reddy and the latter by AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.

All the state ministers have been made coordinators of one Lok Sabha seat each.

In Karnataka too, barring Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, all state ministers — including H K Patil, K H Muniyappa, M B Patil, Priyank Kharge, Madhu Bangarappa, K J George, Dinesh Gundurao, G Parameshwar and Krishna Byregowda — have been made coordinators. The Congress won only one of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2019.

In Jharkhand, the party appointed state ministers Badal Partalekh, Banna Gupta, Rameshwar Oraon and Alamgir Alam as coordinators of Koderma, Dhanbad, Singhbhum and Godda seats.

In Maharashtra, the coordinators include former Chief Ministers Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan, Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar, senior leader Balasaheb Thorat, former ministers Yashomati Thakur, Nitin Raut and Amit Deshmukh, and Rajya Sabha MP Rajani Patil.

Among the coordinators in Gujarat are Rajya Sabha MP Amee Yajnik, Naranbhai Ratwa and senior leader Tushar Chaudhary. The other senior leaders who figure in the list include Mahesh Joshi (Rajasthan) Jaiwardhan Singh (Madhya Pradesh) and Ganesh Godiyal (Uttarakhand). Senior Congress leaders said the idea is to ensure that the leaders take ownership of these seats, irrespective of the candidate, to ensure victory.