NEW DELHI: Gearing up for the 2024 general elections, the newly formed National Alliance Committee (NAC) of the Congress held its first strategy meeting on Saturday and asserted that a seat-sharing formula will be worked out at the earliest after deliberations with all state units.
The meeting assumes significance as many of the INDIA alliance partners like All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the JD(U) have been pushing the Congress to set a deadline for a seat-sharing formula at the state levels ahead of the general elections.
On Tuesday, the Congress formed the five-member NAC with Gujarat in-charge Mukul Wasnik as convenor and veteran leaders, including former chief ministers Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel, Salman Khurshid, and Mohan Prakash as members to negotiate with INDIA bloc partners for seat sharing for the 2024 Parliamentary polls.
The meeting comes on the heels of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Thursday, which adopted a resolution that it would take all necessary steps to make the INDIA bloc an effective bulwark and force against the BJP and its allies.
While interacting with the media after the meeting, Wasnik said that the committee will decide on a “seat-sharing formula” after discussing with state units.
“We have taken stock of the situation. In the next few days, we will hold discussions with senior leaders in the state committees of Congress on strategies to go forward, and the seats to be discussed. We will take their opinions and decide the way forward,” he said.
“There is no deadline set for this. But we will decide as soon as possible,” he said.
At the fourth meeting of the INDIA bloc on December 19, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee proposed December 31 as the deadline for seat sharing among allies.
Several parties have suggested that the seat-sharing talks should be completed by January second week as elections are looming.
Seat-sharing among the INDIA partners and Congress has emerged as a thorny issue which has also dominated the CWC meeting.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was reportedly upset with the regional satraps Kamal Nath, former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, and former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel over the poor performance of the party in the recent assembly elections and for not accommodating smaller parties.
The Congress faced flak from its INDIA partners -- Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Left parties -- for refusing to cede seats in all three states.
After the Madhya Pradesh Assembly election debacle, Congress replaced Kamal Nath with Jitu Patwari as the state president.
On the INDIA bloc meeting and seat-sharing, Wasnik said, “INDIA bloc has met several times. Wherever there are the alliance parties, we will discuss the seat-sharing formula with the leaders.”
Except for Khurshid, all other members were present in the inaugural meeting of the committee.