Can Cong solve seat-sharing puzzle with INDIA partners?

After extensive internal consultations, the Congress has begun seat-sharing talks in some states with like-minded parties of the INDIA bloc for Lok Sabha elections.

Sources said senior leaders of the party have been told to reach out to other leaders of the alliance and talks with some parties have begun.

Formal negotiations for seat-sharing with Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab and Delhi will begin on Monday, the sources added.

The Congress' five-member committee on seat-sharing -- which has Mukul Wasnik as convener and senior leaders Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel among members -- has already held internal consultations with state Congress chiefs and handed over its findings to party chief Mallikarjun Kharge.

The seat-sharing talks with other parties come after the 28-party Opposition grouping decided to unitedly take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The INDIA bloc has agreed to have a single Opposition candidate in Lok Sabha election seats against the BJP in a bid to defeat it in 2024.

The sources said Congress president Kharge has entrusted the responsibility to senior leaders, which also include members of the seat-sharing committee, to work on seat distribution with other parties.

The Congress has pre-poll alliances with parties like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal-United in Bihar, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in Jharkhand and others in Assam, but has no tie-up with some main parties in key states.

The most contentious of these include Kerala, West Bengal, Delhi and Punjab, where the difficulty of having seat-sharing arrangements with INDIA bloc partners is well acknowledged by party insiders.

In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress and Left, despite being part of the opposition alliance, do not want any arrangement with each other and the Congress will have to select any one of them.

The recent statements of TMC leaders and Congress PCC chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also do not bode well for the possible partnership between TMC and Congress in the state.

In Kerala, the Congress-led United Democratic Front has 19 of the 20 MPs from the state and having an arrangement with the Communist Party of India-Marxist seems bleak as it would have to rest its sitting MPs.

In Punjab, the state units of both AAP and Congress are confident of their victory and do not wish to hold any arrangement.

State Congress units of other states like Kerala have also opposed any such seat-sharing, the sources said.

All does not seem well between the Congress and Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, going by the recent statements of Akhilesh Yadav, who is miffed with the party for not giving him any seats in the recent Madhya Pradesh assembly election and over the statements of Kamal Nath against him.

However, the party is holding seat-sharing talks with all partners while hoping for some middle path to strengthen the opposition against the BJP.

The sources add that the party has decided to complete the seat-sharing arrangements with other parties of the Opposition by this month-end.

Congress president Kharge had on Saturday said leaders of INDIA parties would decide within 10-15 days on the allocation of posts in the Opposition bloc, remarks that come amid speculation that the alliance could pick a convener ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

He also said that all other matters including seat-sharing of the INDIA bloc would be resolved soon, with party sources indicating that this is likely to be concluded by the month-end.

Kharge said the Congress is working on all the 545 Lok Sabha constituencies and has appointed observers for all the seats, but which party will contest which seat and how many will be decided soon after consultations with all constituents of the Opposition alliance.

Asked how many seats the party would contest, he said, "We have already finalised parliamentary observers for all the constituencies... We will go and assess each Parliamentary constituency."

"Ultimately, when the INDIA bloc is there and negotiations are held in each state, the exact number will come out. But, we are trying to put in our efforts everywhere," he said.