- Saturday, May 04, 2024
The ruling parties of India’s West Bengal and Punjab state said that they will contest in all seats in their respective states.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE unity of opposition parties that are trying hard to put up a united front against prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the national elections due in a few months received two major blows within hours this week after two regional parties conveyed a message that they are not too eager to join hands with the Indian National Congress, the country’s main opposition outfit.
The opposition bloc, named Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or INDIA, which was formed last year to showcase the unity of the anti-Modi forces, saw the ruling parties of the northern state of Punjab and eastern state of West Bengal coming up with no-compromise stances about sharing of seats.
Hours after Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of Bengal and supremo of the Trinamool Congress, ruled out an alliance with the Congress in her state, Punjab’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said it will contest the national elections alone in the state.
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“The Aam Aadmi Party has shortlisted 40 candidates for the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab. We are getting a survey done before finalising candidates,” Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann said on Wednesday (24).
Earlier on the same day, Banerjee declared that her party has no tie-up with the Congress in Bengal and any decision about an alliance at the national level will only be taken after the elections.
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“I had no discussions with the Congress. I have always said that in Bengal, we will fight alone. I gave them (Congress) many proposals… but they rejected them. I am not concerned about what will be done in the (rest of the) country… but we are a secular party and, in Bengal, we alone will defeat BJP,” the firebrand leader, one of the most vocal anti-Modi faces in India, said.
Banerjee herself was once in the Congress but left the party owing to disagreements and floated her own Trinamool Congress that eclipsed her former party.
The Congress, however, was not giving up yet. Senior leader KC Venugopal said an alliance between the Congress and Trinamool was still a possibility in Bengal and they will speak with the state’s ruling party. He said the goal is to reduce the BJP’s seats. Venugopal also called Banerjee a senior leader in the INDIA alliance and vowed to sort out the differences.
Seat-sharing was always going to be a major challenge for the parties in the INDIA bloc with a number of regional outfits such as the Trinamool, AAP and Samajwadi Party intending to play bigger roles. The Congress, on the other hand, has shown little interest to give up its big brother approach despite suffering repeated electoral defeats.
State units of the Congress in both Punjab and Bengal have expressed their reservations over an alliance with the regional parties of the respective states that are in power currently. The regional satraps, on the other hand, are not ready to cede ground in their respective strongholds to the weakening national party.
