The stage has been set for 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the fourth meeting of the INDIA Bloc saw high drama with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stating that Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge will be the bloc’s PM candidate. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Shiv Sena (UBT) Chief Uddhav Thackeray seconded the proposal but Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar were unhappy. Lalu and Nitish left the meeting and before the Press Conference. Kharge said the priority is to win the election. However Kharge belongs to the SC community, and the INDIA Bloc hopes to cash in. It will also counter the BJP’s Hindutva and ultra-nationalism planks. There was a broad understanding that seat-sharing talks should be completed before December 31. Parties would hold joint rallies and campaigns before the Ram Temple consecration ceremony on January 22.
MAYAWATI PLANS A NEW STRATEGY
BSP MPs bear the opinion that party should join the Opposition’s INDIA alliance but BSP Supremo Mayawati had ruled out entering any alliance with INDIA or NDA and she may carry out her tour of Uttar Pradesh soon for an inspection of preparations for the Lok Sabha elections. Mayawati hopes to get direct feedback from party workers at the grassroots level to help the party chalk out a strategy and decide candidates. This may lead to a major shift in electoral strategy. Mayawati had not campaigned for the 2022 assembly elections, and the 2023 urban local body polls. One of the biggest challenges that the party is facing in UP is to not only win enough seats to be in the reckoning but also retain the ones that it has. In the 2019 LS elections, the party had won 10 seats. In 2014, it drew a blank. In 2009, it had won 20 UP seats.
WHO IN I.N.D.I.A IS BEST TO BEAT MODI?
The INDIA BLOC is keen to consolidate a list of political leaders to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Lok Sabha constituency of Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi. According to sources two names have been proposed so far, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The name of Priyanka Gandhi as the INDIA bloc’s candidate from the Varanasi seat against PM Modi in the upcoming 2024 general elections has been proposed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee .The suggestive proposal was put forth during the fourth meeting of the INDIA alliance held in Delhi. On the other hand JD (U) leaders in Uttar Pradesh have the opinion that CM Nitish Kumar should contest from the Kurmi-dominated seats of Phulpur or Mirzapur. Both are near Varanasi and hopefully make a dent in the Kurmi votes in Varanasi.
KHARGE, RAHUL, PRIYANKA VS. TOUGH GUY AKHILESH
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi and General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, along with top party functionaries from Uttar Pradesh, brainstormed at a crucial meeting to firm up plans for the state for the 2024 polls. During the meeting UP leaders voiced their apprehension about the party receiving a decent share of seats in the state, anticipating hard bargaining with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in the backdrop of the Congress’s recent debacle in the three Hindi heartland states. Meanwhile According to sources, SP was not ready to leave more than 12 constituencies for the Congress. The Congress, on the other hand, wanted 2009, when it won 21 seats, to be the base year for consideration of seats. The SP says seats have to be left for the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Bhim Army leader Chandrashekhar and Apna Dal (Krishna Patel). SP wants to improve its 2022 tally.
SONIA GANDHI ASKS CONGRESS TO GET READY
Top Congress leaders had interaction at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to discuss the party’s strategic plans on seat-sharing with INDIA bloc partners and further course of action for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as well as to evaluate the reasons for its defeat in assembly elections in three states. It was presided by party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and senior leader Rahul Gandhi. Some CWC members asked Rahul Gandhi to embark on a second ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. The CWC supported the idea. Meanwhile Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday expressed disappointment at the election results and urged Congress workers to convert disappointment into positivity for the Lok Sabha polls. ”We have our tasks cut out for us, both as a party in our own right and also as a member of the INDIA bloc,” she said, “The Congress is gearing up to hold a mega rally on December 28 in Nagpur on its foundation day. (IPA Service)
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