Congress president Rahul Gandhi will seek re-election to the lok Sabha next year from Amethi, but there is uncertainty over UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi contesting the polls.
On speculation that Sonia may not contest lok Sabha polls due to ill health, highly-placed Congress sources said while it is very much clear that party chief Rahul Gandhi will be the Amethi candidate, the Rae Bareli seat will be a choice between Sonia and her daughter, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Congress sources also said that to stop Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s juggernaut, the party will strive for unity of the Opposition parties with focus on building “solid” alliances in politically crucial States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra, which together account for nearly 170 lok Sabha seats.
Underlining the importance of Opposition unity, a top Congress leader said if the Opposition parties are able to seal “proper” alliance in the States then there is no chance that Modi will return to power.
“We are not bothered about our performance in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. We are more concerned about building a powerful anti-BJP alliance in crucial States like UP. While the RJD is already our natural ally in Bihar and the NCP in Maharashtra the SP-BSP alliance in UP will turn out to be the doom of the BJP,” said a Congress leader.
The leader also clarified though the Congress and the Shiv Sena respect each others’ leadership and capabilities but are not aligned ideologically, hence there cannot be any pre-poll alliance between the two. “There will not be any alliance in Delhi too,” said the leader setting aside speculation of a possible Congress-Aam Admi Party alliance.
“Post-poll, the scenario in 2019 will be completely different as I can say this from my personal experiences after seeing so many elections,” added the leader exuding confidence that it will be a non-BJP Government at the Centre next year.
Congress sources said the issue of prime ministership is very much secondary now to anyone (Opposition parties). The BJP and the RSS are spreading canards that the Opposition is divided on the issue of PM post,” he said.
Expressing confidence that Congress will wrest power in Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the senior leader said all these States will go to polls without anyone being projected as chief ministerial candidate.
“There is no leadership tussle in these States. We are working collectively as a team. If we put up suitable candidates, we will win all three States. In any case wherever we have lost, be it Gujarat, Goa or North-East States, there has been close contests,” the Congress leader said.
He also said that journalists should be ready to face more intimidation as the elections approaches,” said the leader.
He reminded of 2004 India shining campaign under the then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. “I can assure you that elections cannot always be won through media and people in country have started realising this,” he said.