Today in Politics: Nadda in J&K to firm up LS poll plan; Congress, AAP may kick off seat-sharing talks

J&K BJP leaders said the meeting is likely to finalise the party’s candidates based on an internal survey report recently submitted to Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

In Uttarakhand, too, the BJP will hold a strategy meeting in Dehradun on the state’s five Lok Sabha seats. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami will meet members of the state party unit along with national vice-president and Rajya Sabha MP Laxmikant Bajpai. The BJP has won all five seats in the past two Lok Sabha elections, and has set a target to repeat the performance and secure 75% of the vote share this time.

As the BJP presses ahead with its state-level meetings for the Lok Sabha polls, the Opposition INDIA bloc also seems to be now inching towards starting its seat-sharing negotiations.

With Rahul Gandhi set to launch his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra on January 14, the Congress is expected to step up its seat-sharing discussions.

On Sunday, the Congress is likely to start the process of its seat-sharing talks with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for Punjab and Delhi amid their strained ties and uneasy equations.

Already in Bihar, its allies such as the JD(U), led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar – who is angling for the INDIA alliance’s convener post – and the RJD have demanded 17 seats each, leaving 4 for the Congress and 2 for the CPI(ML) of the total 40 parliamentary seats in the state, as reported by Lalmani Verman and Santosh Singh.

An RJD leader said: “The practical formula is 17 seats each to RJD and JD(U), four to Congress and two to CPI(ML). If top leaders of RJD and JD(U) concede a little more, it could be 16 seats each to RJD and JD(U), five to Congress, two to CPI(ML) and one to CPI.”

At a press conference on Saturday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the INDIA bloc would decide on allocation of posts, including the national convener’s position, in the next 10-15 days and that other matters such as seat sharing would be resolved by month-end, according to party sources.

Kharge claimed the Congress is working on all the 545 Lok Sabha constituencies and has appointed observers for all the seats, but which alliance partner will contest which seat and how many will be decided soon after consultations with all its constituents.

Sources however said that Kharge told a meeting of the AICC general secretaries and state in-charges, state Congress presidents, and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leaders on Thursday that the party would focus on 255 seats, as reported by Manoj C G. State leaders read it as an indication the party was prepared to contest in a lesser number of seats this time to accommodate its INDIA allies.

Meanwhile, AAP chief and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, who was scheduled to begin a three-day tour of Gujarat on Saturday, stayed back in the national capital to attend a meeting on the preparations for Delhi’s upcoming budget for 2024-25. On Sunday, he will head to Gujarat to address public meetings and meet party workers. He is also likely to meet jailed AAP leader Chaitar Vasava, according to sources in the party.

Kejriwal’s Gujarat tour was announced amid claims by leaders of his party that he may be arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Delhi excise policy “scam” case. He has skipped three summonses from the ED, calling them “illegal”.

The Delhi CM has said he will cooperate if the ED issues a “legally correct summons”. The ED, however, is examining Kejriwal’s reply and preparing to issue its fourth summons to him, sources said.

As parties continue their preparations for the Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission (EC) will begin assessing states’ poll preparedness with visits to Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu starting Sunday. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar, along with Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel, will lead the EC’s delegation for these assessments.

Ahead of the EC’s visit, deputy election commissioners briefed the panel on preparations in the two states on Saturday. It is usual for the CEC and ECs to tour the states ahead of the Assembly or Lok Sabha elections to meet political parties, senior police and administrative officials and its ground poll machinery. It is, however, not yet certain whether they will visit all the states and UTs ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The panel may skip the states where the Assembly polls were held recently.

– With PTI inputs