Failing to forge a pre-poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress is now holding talks with Jai Adivasi Yuva Shakti (JAYS), which has a stronghold in about 30 seats with a sizeable tribal population.
Sources, however, said JAYS has sought 40 seats from the Congress as part of the pre-poll alliance in the State, which has 230 Assembly constituencies.
The party, which was eyeing for an alliance with the BSP in Chhattisgarh too, is going alone in the State. For the first phase polls for 18 seats, it has declared candidates, including former BJP MP and niece of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Karuna Shukla, to take on Chief Minister Raman Singh from the Rajnandgaon seat. The candidates for remaining 72 seats that will go to polls in the second phase are yet to be declared.
The Congress has been out of power both in MP and Chhattisgarh for last 15 years. "Our focus is 28 seats in Malwa-Nimar region of western MP that has 66 Assembly constituencies. Of these 28 seats, 22 are reserved for tribals. Out of these 22 seats, the Congress currently has MLAs in five Assembly constituencies," said a senior party leader.
JAYS convener Dr Hirala Alawa said the party will demand candidates in Alirajpur, Ratlam, Jhabua, Dhar, Khargone, Burhanpur, Khandwa, Dewas and Barwani districts as these places have sizeable tribal population.
"We have already showed our strength by holding Kisan Panchayat in Kukshi of Dhar district on October 2. Over one lakh tribal youths took part in it," Dr Alawa , who is a former assistant professor of AIIMS Delhi, said.
The Congress had earlier made an "effort" to stitch an alliance with the BSP and the SP but failed. MP Congress chief Kamal Nath had even met BSP supremo Mayawati over the pre-poll alliance in July in New Delhi.
Later on, Congress leaders sought to assert that the party was in fact not interested in any alliance in the forthcoming Assembly polls.
The grand old party met with the same fate when SP chief Akhilesh Yadav too announced it would go alone. Both the former CMs of Uttar Pradesh then indicated at the "arrogance" and "stubborn attitude" of the Congress for the failure of alliance. Madhya Pradesh is going to polls on November 28.