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Opposition INDIA bloc’s Coordination Committee is set to hold its first meeting on Wednesday and according to the details, leaders of several opposition parties have sought an early seat-sharing formula to be worked out to ensure that a joint candidate is put up from the opposition side against the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates in Lok Sabha seats.
However, several leaders said that the parties have to “shed their egos” and “vested interests” in arriving at such a formula.
The meeting of the 14-member all-important panel of the opposition will take place at the residence of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar in New Delhi on September 13 evening.
While no decision has been taken on the criteria, it is likely to be based on the performance of parties on a particular seat in recent polls.
The issue of seat sharing will be addressed, even if it may not be finalised in Wednesday’s meeting. The leaders will also lay a broad outlay of the election campaign for taking on the BJP, news agency PTI reported quoting sources.
THACKERAY MEETS SHARAD PAWAR
On Tuesday, the eve of the first meeting of the coordination committee of the opposition alliance INDIA, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray called on Sharad Pawar in Mumbai, where their meeting lasted for nearly 90 minutes.
Talking to reporters, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) state unit chief Jayant Patil, who was part of the meeting along with Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, said discussions took place on the INDIA bloc’s coordination panel gathering and the current political situation in Maharashtra.
Patil said seat-sharing arrangements in Maharashtra, which sends 48 MPs to the Lok Sabha, the second highest after Uttar Pradesh, among opposition allies in the state, will be concluded soon.
Thackeray, Pawar and Congress leaders Nana Patole, Balasaheb Thorat and Ashok Chavan will discuss the seat-sharing, said the former state minister.
He said the 25 seats won by the BJP or its allies in the last Lok Sabha polls will be distributed properly among the three Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners.
OPPOSITION’s ELECTION STRATEGY
The coordination cum election strategy committee of the opposition’s INDIA bloc has 14 members – KC Venugopal (Congress), TR Baalu (DMK), Hemant Soren (JMM), Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena-UBT), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Raghav Chadha (AAP), Javed Ali Khan (SP), Lalan Singh (JD-U), D Raja (CPI), Omar Abdullah (National Conference), Mehbooba Mufti (PDP), Abhishek Banerjee (TMC), and a member from CPI-M.
Abhishek Banerjee, who was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate to appear before it on the same day, will not attend the meeting.
The CPI-M has not yet nominated any member to the committee and will be absent at the meeting as well. Party sources said a decision on who will represent CPI-M will be taken at its Polit Bureau meeting scheduled on September 16-17.
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.
The resolution issued on September 1, after the third meeting of the bloc, 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”.
According to opposition leaders, while states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Bihar are sorted, others like Delhi, Punjab and West Bengal are likely to be challenging.
The meeting will also focus on finalising campaigns and rallies to be held in the coming days.
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