RPI bargains hard with Congress over seat adjustment

According to reliable sources, the RPI leaders have demanded at least eight seats for their support to Congress by the way of seat adjustments. These eight seats are: Chimur, Amravati, Osmanabad, Solapur, Pandharpur, and three in Mumbai North-east, South-east and North-central Mumbai.

While putting up the demand, the RPI leaders reportedly pointed out that last time they had contested as many as 12 Lok Sabha seats in the State and had succeeded in securing over 1.5 lakh votes in as many as eight constituencies.

This has put Pawar in a dilemma. He is well aware that the RPI does not command any influences beyond its Dalit pockets in the seats they want to contest and are therefore unlikely to win on their own steam. Conceding these seats to RPI would mean handing them on a platter to Sena-BJP alliance. If, however, the Congress refuses to concede some ground to the RPI, the party stands to lose the small but vital electoral edge it would have if the Dalits were on its side.

Pawar is also likely to meet another RPI leader Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of late Babasaheb Ambedkar. This too is likely to give Pawar more headache because Ambedkar is also expected to put up tall demands for seat adjustments. He has already demanded at least five seats, including Akola, Washim and Chimur parliamentary constituencies. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) member and in-charge of Maharashtra, Madhavrao Scindia met him in New Delhi yesterday and tried to forge an electoral adjustment.

The Congress has already lost out on yet another faction led by poet-turned-political activist, Namdeo Dhasal, who has revived the Dalit Panther recently. Dhasal has made a common cause with the ruling Sena-BJP alliance after getting disillusioned with the fruitless RPI unity moves and Pawar’s `divide-and-rule games’ with the Dalits in Maharashtra.

However, despite of the RPI leaders playing truant, the Congress cannot afford to let go of crucial RPI support since many a party stalwarts were defeated in the last Lok Sabha elections only because the rival RPI nominees took away the vital Dalit votes. Pawar is therefore likely to continue his dialogue with the RPI leaders and ensure that there is an alliance with the Dalit party.

Talking to The Indian Express, here late this evening Pawar claimed that the prospects of RPI joining hands with the Congress either through an alliance or seat adjustments were very high.When asked about the demand raised by the RPI leaders Pawar declined to divulge the details. The Congress leader however claimed that the issue of leaving certain number of seats to RPI did not come up at all during the talk. “We discussed in general the need for the Congress and RPI coming together to combat communal forces in Maharashtra. Both the sides are agreed on this. The details of how is to be achieved can be worked out later,” was all he said.

Pawar further said that the Congress lost as many as 22 seats in the last LS elections only due to division of votes caused by the RPI and other secular parties, contesting independently.