RPI wants national tie-up with Cong

SURAT, MAY 2: The Republican Party of India (RPI), whose alliance with the Congress and the Samajwadi Party routed the Bharatiya Janata P...

SURAT, MAY 2: The Republican Party of India (RPI), whose alliance with the Congress and the Samajwadi Party routed the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine in the last Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra, is ready to enter into an alliance with the Congress at the national level.

The issue will be formally raised at the RPI central executive committee meeting to be held at New Delhi on May 11. The party’s poll strategy will also be finalised there; should the alliance be struck, the RPI will want to field candidates from at least 40 seats nationwide, including Gujarat. In Maharashtra, the party will want to contest two more candidates than it did the last time.

Annoucing its plans, RPI national president Ramdas Athawale and general secretary Jogendra Kawade said the only way to counter the BJP’s “communal politics” was by keeping the secular vote intact.

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“In Gujarat, we would like to enter into an alliance with the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Party. The division of votes had helped the BJPin the last general elections here”, Kawade said, adding that his party would demand at least three seats in Gujarat.

The leaders claimed that the reason why the Congress did so well in Madhya Pradesh in the last elections was its tie-up with the RPI. Psephologists and exit polls had also been proved wrong by the results, they said.

Predicting that a tie-up among the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party would help keep the BJP at bay during the next elections, Athawale, while admitting there were differences between Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s grandson and Akola Member of Parliament Prakash Ambedkar and the rest of the party, said the other three MPs were united and would insist on the party symbol if the RPI split.

They were also trying to patch up with Prakash Ambedkar, they said, alleging that there were many people trying to exploit the Dalit votes. “They are not real Ambedkarites. The Dalits won’t tolerate them”, they said.

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Alleging that the BJP remote-control lay with theSangh Parivar, Kawade claimed that the BJP was against Dalits, tribals and minorities. It could give neither an “Able PM” nor a “Stable Government”, he said, adding in lighter vein, “Their first shot at power lasted 13 days, the next, 13 months; their campaign for the 13th Lok Sabha will meet the same fate.”

The party has organised a Republican Ekta Sammelan late tonight at Premnagar Bhedwad. In the afternoon, the RPI Mahila Front organised a convention for women.