Congress attuned to secular overtures

Now, however, wiser counsel prevails. Conscious of the fact that the defeat margin of its candidates at the last Lok Sabha elections was roughly equivalent to the votes garnered by the so-called third parties, sources say, this time they might even be willing to come to some pre-poll arrangement.The catalyst for this reversal seems to be the offer by RPI leader Prakash Ambedkar recently. No formal offer has been received to this effect, though, party spokesperson Ratnakar Mahajan says, “If we are approached in this direction by the RPI, we will consider the proposal.”

According to Ambedkar, however, the formal offer is on its way. “The party presidium has been authorised to write to the Congress. But this alliance that we envisage encompasses all: including the CPI, CPI(M), the Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party.”

Speaking to The Indian Express, Ambedkar admitted that despite wrecking the Congress’ chances at the last Lok Sabha elections, none of the third front parties made any significant gains. “Although we dented the Congress fortunes our growth was not horizontal but vertical. Therefore, we have to now explore other possibilities. Moreover, with the the Sena-BJP playing different cards, we have to now seek better alternatives,” he said.

But Ambedkar indicated that support to the Congress would come with strings attached: the party will have to consider sharing seats with the other parties. Rather a loosely woven unity in the interests of polls would be the better alternative because none of the UF constituents can hope to win a single seat without Congress support. This is something that is acceptable to a large section of Congressmen. A senior party MLA says, “Why can’t we give away the Akola and Amravati seats to the RPI? We cannot win those without them. In return this realism is likely to return to us a good dozen seats that we lost the last time.” Like-minded Congressmen in the State are lobbying for a formal stamp of approval upon this emerging consensus.