Congress hopes to placate Mamata, resolution in Punjab difficult

Banerjee’s remarks came a day before Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is scheduled to enter West Bengal.

Both AICC general secretary in charge of organisation, K C Venugopal, and Congress communication head, Jairam Ramesh, said the party was hopeful of sorting out the differences with the TMC. The TMC, on the other hand, maintained that the Congress’s demand for more than two seats in West Bengal was “unreasonable” and “like asking for toffees”.

The Congress always knew that seat-sharing in Bengal would be a challenge given its state unit’s aversion to it, as well as the Left parties’ reluctance regarding a three-way seat-sharing pact.
However, what it did not expect was Banerjee saying the issue of a national alliance could be decided after the elections, and the Congress should contest 300 seats and leave the rest to the regional parties, which, she said, were together. If the Congress was not agreeable, the regional parties could go ahead and contest on their own, she said.

At the heart of the tussle between the Congress and TMC is the former’s demand for at least six seats in West Bengal, and reluctance to part with any seats in Assam and Meghalaya.
TMC sources said that in the last elections, the Congress recorded over 30% vote share in only two seats (Berhampore, Malda Dakshin), and added that the party could think of increasing the offer marginally if the Congress reciprocated in Assam and Meghalaya.

The scrimmage between the Congress and AAP, too, is over the former’s reluctance to enter into seat-sharing pacts in Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Goa. While the Congress is agreeable to an understanding in Delhi, it is not keen on similar pacts in Punjab and other states. Sources in the Congress said an alliance with the AAP was on the cards in Delhi.

“The situation in Punjab is similar to that of Kerala where the Left and Congress are fighting against each other despite being members of the INDIA bloc. So, chances of an AAP-Congress alliance in Punjab are next to impossible. Mann’s statement that the AAP would contest in all the 13 Lok Sabha seats is not a setback in that sense. We are also prepared to fight in all 13. But an alliance in Delhi and some minor adjustment in Haryana and Gujarat is very much possible,” said a senior Congress leader.
Congress leaders admitted that the statements by Banerjee and AAP’s Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann were damaging to the alliance in terms of optics.

Meanwhile, seat-sharing arrangements in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have not made much headway either.

In Bihar, the pact is more or less sealed (17 seats each for JD-U and RJD, 5 for Congress, 1 for CPI-ML Liberation). But Congress allies like the JD(U) are keeping a wary eye on the developments elsewhere. JD(U) leaders hold the Congress responsible for the delay in other states, blaming its insistence on an “unreasonable” number of seats in states where it is a marginal player, and unwillingness to share in states where it is a dominant force.

The JD(U) is also upset over the delay in finalising the leadership roles within the INDIA bloc. A week has passed since the bloc held an online meeting – which was skipped by Banerjee, SP’s Akhilesh Yadav and Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Uddhav Thackeray — but the bloc is yet to even announce the decision to appoint Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the chairperson and Nitish Kumar as the convener.
Banerjee, for one, is said to be unhappy with the decision, indicating that the TMC felt sidelined. She had underlined that she was the one who suggested the INDIA name for the bloc.

On Wednesday, the Congress sought to play down Banerjee’s remarks, saying the TMC was an important pillar of the alliance and it could not imagine the INDIA bloc without her.
“If you look at the full statement of Mamata Banerjee… she has said that she wants to defeat the BJP. That she will not step back in her fight against the BJP. We are entering West Bengal with that spirit,” Jairam Ramesh said. “When you are on a long journey, there will be speed-breakers on the way at times, there will be red lights… That doesn’t mean we will step back. Chalta rahta hai (such things happen), we cross the speed-breakers, red lights will turn into greens,” he added.