INDIA friction rises, Nitish blames Cong ‘preoccupation’ with Assembly polls for INDIA delays

Taking a swipe at the Congress, the leading party in the INDIA bloc, Nitish said: “After Opposition parties came together to forge the national alliance against the BJP, we gained some momentum. But there has not been much progress as the Congress seems to be more interested in the Assembly elections in five states. We had decided that the Congress would take a lead role in the INDIA alliance, but now it seems that the next meeting of our alliance can take place only after the Assembly polls are over.”

The JD(U) supremo also reminded the audience that the national alliance was formed after he took the lead in holding the first INDIA meeting in Patna.

Nitish may not be too off the mark, with Congress sources admitting that the party would prefer seat talks after the Assembly polls, as it hopes that a good performance will increase its bargaining power.

However, Nitish’s remarks betray the growing unease among its INDIA partners over this stalemate, combined with the Congress yielding no ground to them in the Assembly elections. Of the five states, only in Telangana does an arrangement seem likely between the Congress and the Left.

Both the Samajwadi Party and JD(U) have expressed their disappointment with the Congress publicly. K C Tyagi, senior leader of the JD(U), which has fielded around 10 candidates in Madhya Pradesh, told The Indian Express: “It was purely up to the Congress to accommodate us, but it did not happen.”

The SP is in the race in the state with 40-odd candidates, with its chief Akhilesh Yadav lashing out at the Congress alleging that he was kept hanging over seat-sharing. He warned that the Congress could face a similar treatment in Uttar Pradesh.

Together, the SP, JD(U) and Aam Aadmi Party, which is also an INDIA ally, are contesting in 92 seats in Madhya Pradesh.

The SP and AAP, apart from the Trinamool Congress, have incidentally also been demanding that the arrangement for the Lok Sabha elections be reached by November end. At a meeting on September 14, the INDIA alliance’s coordination committee had decided “to start the process for determining seat sharing”, and to reach an arrangement “at the earliest”.

However, seat-sharing apart, even the planned joint rallies of the INDIA alliance have not materialised.

The situation has revived concerns among INDIA partners, especially those in the Hindi heartland, of the Congress’s “big brotherly” attitude.

Even the Congress’s more durable partners, the CPI(M) and CPI, are not happy. While they have little presence in the other four poll-bound states, the two have been hopeful of reaching a tie-up with the Congress in Telangana, after the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi spurned them. But with less than a month to go for the November 30 elections in Telangana, the talks aren’t over.

Sources said the two parties had sought 2 seats each from the Congress and that, after much dilly-dallying, the latter had agreed, before differences arose over the choice of Assembly constituencies. While in case of the CPI, a deal has been more or less reached on Kothagudem and Chennur seats, the CPI(M)’s initial demand for Palair and Bhadrachalam was turned down by the Congress.

The CPI(M) reportedly then asked for Wyra and Miryalaguda seats, but the Congress was not willing to part with the latter either. It is said to have offered the CPI(M) a seat in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits instead, but sources said the CPI(M) might decide to contest alone if the Congress doesn’t concede on Wyra and Miryalaguda seats.

Meanwhile, the Telangana unit of the CPI(M) Thursday released its first list of 17 seats.

In the last Assembly elections in Telangana, the CPI(M) had contested 26 seats, winning none and cornering a vote share of 0.44%. The CPI had contested in 3 and got 0.40% votes but no seats.

In Rajasthan too, the CPI(M) is contesting, from 17 seats. The party had contested in 28 seats last time, winning 2 and getting 1.22% votes.

The party has also decided to contest in 3 seats in Chhattisgarh and 4 in Madhya Pradesh.

At the Patna rally Thursday, what was also significant was the absence of the RJD from the stage. RJD leader and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav joined only later. Along with being INDIA partners, the Congress, RJD, JD(U) and CPI are allies in the ruling Mahagathbandhan of Bihar.

Incidentally, the JD(U) was absent at a recent Congress event to commemorate the first Bihar CM, Srikrishna Singh, attended by RJD supremo Lalu Prasad. A JD(U) leader said at the time that no party leader had got an invite.

On Nitish’s remarks regarding the Congress “preoccupation” with the Assembly polls, Bihar Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh said at the AICC headquarters in Delhi that the JD(U) leader only wished that parties that have come together should be more proactive, and there was nothing wrong in it.

Rajya Sabha MP and Congress Working Committee member Syed Naseer Hussain said the INDIA bloc is at the all-India level, adding: “We are fighting the Assembly elections strongly and seriously. We should also keep in mind that the polls are happening just six months before the 2024 polls, so they should be taken seriously.”