In order to avoid any confrontation and any differences, the three months old Opposition INDIA bloc on Wednesday completely avoided holding discussion on seat sharing in their first coordination meeting aiming to prepare for the Lok Sabha 2024 polls for which they have joined hands to take on the Modi juggernaut.
Sources said States like Maharashtra (NCP, Shiv Sena, Congress), Tamil Nadu (DMK, Congress), Bihar (JD(U), RJD, Congress, Left) have settled. But the India bloc is now facing challenge in negotiations for Delhi, Punjab with the Congress and the AAP at helms of affairs, and in West Bengal with the TMC, the Congress and the Left as stakeholders.
Sources said leaders of several Opposition parties have sought an early seat-sharing formula to be worked out to ensure that a joint Opposition candidate is put up against BJP candidates in Lok Sabha polls. However, several leaders said the parties have to “shed their egos” and “vested interests” in arriving at such a formula.
Before the meeting, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar said it is natural to understand that seat sharing cannot be discussed in a meeting of coordination members and it has to be among the party chiefs and top leaders.
However the coordination committee decided to hold their first joint public meeting in Bhopal in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh in the first week of October where issues related to rising prices, unemployment, corruption and caste census will be raised by the top leaders of the coalition.
The coordination committee also authorised the sub-group of media to decide upon the names of the television anchors on whose shows none of the INDIA parties will send their representatives.
Sources said the reason not to “touch” the sensitive seat-sharing subject was that TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee — one of the main constituents — is on an official visit to Europe and TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, who is member of the INDIA bloc coordination committee, is busy attending the summons by the Enforcement Directorate.
Twelve leaders of the 14-member panel were present in the meeting that took place under the shadow of a huge row over DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin’s assault on Sanatan Dharma.
The meeting was held at the residence of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar in Delhi.
The leaders present at the meeting were: NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Congress’ KC Venugopal, Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren, CPI’s D Raja, SP’s Jawed Ali Khan, DMK’s T R Baalu, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, AAP MP Raghav Chadha, JD(U)’s Sanjay Jha, NC leader Omar Abdullah, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut.
“The coordination committee decided to start the process of determining the seat sharing. It was decided that the member parties will hold the talks and decide (seat-sharing) at the earliest,” said Congress general secretary KC Venugopal briefing the media through a joint statement.
CPI(M) leader Mohd Salim mocked the decision of the coordination committee to keep a chair empty at its meeting since Abhishek, who was to represent the party, was summoned by the ED on the same day.
Salim said the “paduka” (footwear) of Abhishek could have been kept, when told by reporters that Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut said a chair was kept empty at coordination committee meeting to mark the absence of the TMC MP. The CPI(M) is a constituent of the INDIA bloc but the party has not yet nominated any member to the committee.
Venugopal said the committee also decided to hold joint public meetings in different parts of the country. “The first public meeting will be held at Bhopal in the first week of October on the issue of rising prices, unemployment and corruption of the BJP Government. The parties present in the meeting agreed to take up the issue of the caste census,” Venugopal said.
The resolution issued on September 1, after the third meeting of the bloc in Mumbai, said the parties would contest polls together “as far as possible”, and that seat sharing in arrangements in different states would be “initiated immediately” and concluded “at the earliest”.
Over two dozen Opposition parties have formed the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) to take on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance unitedly in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
At the first meeting of the Opposition bloc in Patna in June, it was decided that the strongest candidate from each seat would be picked up for the Lok Sabha polls.
