Rahul to chair today’s meet to discuss LS poll strategy
The Congress has convened a meeting of top party leaders and State unit chiefs to initiate the discussion to strategise for the Lok Sabha polls and prepare a “plan B” for the party if it has to face the Uttar Pradesh election alone. The meeting on Thursday will be chaired by party chief Rahul Gandhi. The meeting is also expected to take a call on appointing Delhi PCC president following resignation of Ajay Maken.
The reluctance of Akhilesh Yadav-Mayawati combine to include the Congress in the UP “mahagathbandhan” has irked the grand old party. Reports suggest that Congress may be left out in the SP-BSP combination that will set aside just two seats in its strongholds of Amethi and Rae Bareli.
In this backdrop, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid said Congress’ willingness to form an alliance should not be seen as its weakness.
“Every party in this country is capable of fighting on its own but an alliance sometimes gives a greater advantage. An alliance with other parties will help the party gain more strength and push the BJP out of power, said the former Union Minister.
“The fact that we have an open mind for an alliance doesn’t mean that we are weak. We can improve by an alliance and through it we can improve the general theme of the grand alliance which is to try and push the BJP out of power,” Khurshid said.
Meanwhile, NCP chief Sharad Pawar called on Rahul Gandhi to sort out differences on the eight of the 48 Lok Sabha seats from Maharashtra on which the two parties have not yet arrived on a consensus. According to AICC sources, both the Opposition parties have so far decided to share 20 seats each.
Also present in the meeting was Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and NCP leader Praful Patel.
Both Congress and NCP had suffered a drubbing in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, winning only two and four parliamentary seats respectively of the total of 48 seats.
Congress and NCP are scheduled to start a mass contact programme - ‘Parivartan Yatra’ - next week in Maharashtra to highlight “failures” of the Central and State Governments. Separately, top leaders from both the UPA partners including NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Congress leaders Ashok Chavan, and Prithviraj Chavan will lead a ‘Jan Sangharsh Yatra’ next week.