by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Count down 2019
Rahul's "One seat One candidate" plan to counter Modi
403 LS seats identified in 15 states for Opposition alliance
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, June 4
As part of Rahul Gandhi's ambitious “One seat One candidate” mission, the Congress president's war room has identified 403 Lok sabha seat in 15 states where it may enter into alliance or understanding with like-minded parties.
Rahul Gandhi is willing to make any sacrifice and walk an extra mile to dislodge the BJP during the Lok Sabha 2019. If he is wooing adversaries, he is keen to bring all ex-Congressmen back into the fold to gear up for Mission-2019. He personally made a phone call to Ajit Jogi's wife to inquire about her husband's health. Jogi has floated a regional party in Chhattisgarh and has been ensuring Congress's defeat for ten years. Simultaneously, he is exploring the possibility of entering into an pan-India alliance with the BSP in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh etc. Obviously, Rahul Gandhi wants enough number of LS seats for the party in UP and willing to concede seats in Congress-dominated states. Rahul Gandhi is not averse to concede space to others in Punjab, Haryana and even Delhi to the BSP. He told the local leadership to come out with a detailed plan to counter the Modi juggernaut in 2019.
Same goes with AUDF in Assam and even NCP may get a few seats in Gujrat outside Maharashtra as part of this mission. Efforts are on to rope in the Abdullahs in Jammu & kashmir who had deserted the Congress. The Congress is already in alliance with Bihar, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand. The talks are on in UP where SP-BSP-RLD have come together. The Congress burnt its fingers in two byelections- first in Phulpur where it unnecessarily put up a candidate and lost the deposit and secondly, lost Palghar seat in Maharashtra and faced humiliating defeat.
But it was Rahul Gandhi who personally clinched the Karnataka alliance and gave the prime position to Janata Dal (S) with the objective to win majority of 28 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP had won 17 seats in 2014 while JD-S won 2 and nine by Congress. Rahul hopes to reap the harvest in Karnataka during LS polls.
Incidentally, Rahul Gandhi did in Karnataka what his late grand mother Indira Gandhi did tway back in 1978 when she installed Charan Singh as PM though he had no majority. Surprisingly, it was Kamal Nath who was behind the whole operation in 1978 which was executed at the behest of Sanjay Gandhi. Now same Kamal Nath wants alliance with the BSP outside UP.
It is, however, not clear as to how many seats Congress will contest out of these 403 Lok Sabha seats in 15 states as seats are being identified. Rahul Gandhi is yet to resolve tricky issues on remaining 140 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh (25), Telangana (17), West Bengal (42), Odisha (21) and Delhi (7) etc.
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