Where do they stand?

Seat sharing is proving to be the first big test for the INDIA bloc

- SONI MISHRA

At noon on January 8, when a team of senior Congress leaders met AAP representatives in Delhi, it was in for a surprise. The Congress negotiators— home party president Mallikarjun Karge had deputed to discuss seat-sharing with INDIA members— were there to talk about seats in Delhi. The AAP, however, wanted to expand the discussion to other states, even those where the Congress has traditionally been in a direct contest with the BJP.

This included Punjab, where the AAP is in power, and also Gujarat, Haryana and Goa, where the AAP claims it has worked hard to build an organisation and has also fought elections. It is learnt to have told the Congress team that it would want to contest four of the seven seats in Delhi, seven in Punjab, three in Haryana and one each in Gujarat and Goa.

The tussle with the AAP was not the only one. There has been no formal discussion between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress for seat sharing in West Bengal. Instead, there have been heated exchanges between the two parties, which are bitter rivals in state politics. Congress’s leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has rejected the Trinamool’s initial offer of two seats to the Congress, and has criticised the Mamata Banerjee government over the recent attacks on Enforcement Directorate officials. He even suggested that the state be put under president’s rule. The Trinamool, in turn, called Chowdhury a BJP agent and said it could defeat the BJP on its own in Bengal.