In fight against BJP, Congress faces alliance hiccups in poll-bound states

An alliance with the BSP could add nearly 7-8 per cent to the Congress party's vote share in Madhya Pradesh.

The Congress is currently in a tussle with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) over the sharing of seats for the forthcoming assembly polls to Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.



The elections to these three states, along with Mizoram, are scheduled at the end of November and the first week of December. After it had seemed that the Congress-BSP alliance had been sewn up, the BSP’s Madhya Pradesh leadership has threatened to field candidates in the state’s all 230 seats.
Similarly, an SP leader has said the Congress party needed to have a larger heart in seat-sharing in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and his party might return the favour in Uttar Pradesh. Otherwise, he said, the putative alliance of the SP and the BSP in Uttar Pradesh might have to rethink the number of seats it could give the Congress in that state for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It could be as low as two seats — the Nehru-Gandhi family pocket boroughs of Rae Bareli and Amethi.



Sources in the Congress, BSP and the SP pointed out that these statements have not come from any of the top leaders of the two Uttar Pradesh parties, but were that of second-rung leaders. “It is usual during any seat-sharing negotiations for the sides involved to issue such statements, which is intended not only to put pressure on the other side in order to secure a fairer deal as it is also to prepare one’s own supporters to be willing to make sacrifices in the larger interest of the party,” a senior Opposition leader said.



In Madhya Pradesh, the state unit of the Congress is unwilling to part with more than a dozen and a half seats. Its argument is that the BSP won four seats in 2013, and was runner-up in another 11 seats (see Chart). Its leadership also believes that it has weaned away some of the Dalits and most backward castes from the BSP’s influence, particularly by giving representation to Kushwahas.
But a BSP leader said such a deal would be unacceptable to his party. “The BSP is the only party in India that can effectively transfer its votes. Our vote share in MP is evidence that we might not win in a three-cornered fight but could be the difference in Congress party’s win or loss in several seats,” the BSP source said. The BSP has indicated to the Congress that it wants to contest 40 seats. The BSP is unlikely to agree to contest below 30 seats.

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