INDIA block locks in base seat adjustment pact
First meeting of INDIA in New Delhi
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, September 14: The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) will formally begin talking on seat adjustment from next month but the constituents have concurred on a base pact that would be the guiding principle for the negotiations. The first public meeting of INDIA will take place in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
“The sitting-getting principle will be the basis for the negotiations. The constituents are largely on the same page that the parties will contest from the constituencies they had won in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections,” said an informed source.
The constituents of INDIA held its first coordination committee meeting which is tasked to strategize for the Opposition alliance. While the sitting-getting principle will be less contentious for the constituents, the Opposition alliance may have to work out the nitty-gritty of the details next month amid indications that some of the partners may drive hard bargains in Delhi, Punjab, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
Sources indicated that the INDIA constituents will have to work out pact with the Trinamool Congress on the basis of the 2019 poll result, while they may have to brace up for hard negotiations in Delhi and Punjab. The TMC had won 22 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general elections from West Bengal, while the BJP had bagged 18 constituencies. The Congress had won two seats in the state.
Indications emerging from the Opposition block suggest that the Congress and the Left may have to forgo claims on several seats and limit themselves on a few constituencies for friendly contests from where the BJP had won in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The INDIA block will face major challenges in inking seat adjustment pact in Delhi from where the BJP had won all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general elections. While the parties who came second will stake claims in the negotiations, sources stated that the Congress and the AAP may have to share the turf with lion’s share going for the Arvind Kejriwal-headed outfit. Similar equations are likely to emerge in Punjab where the AAP formed the state government by sweeping the Assembly elections last year.
Maharashtra is bracing up for an interesting seat adjustment pact as three constituents of INDIA – the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Shiv Sena of Uddhav Thackeray – will be contesting 16 Lok Sabha seats each, which will be a departure from the norms in the past.
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