From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Though Janata Dal(U) of Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee of Trinamul Congress and Samajwadi Party are staying out of the INDIA block meeting convened here on Wednesday, the Congress leaders on Tuesday claimed the gross performance of the Congress in the four states in the Assembly polls was better than the gross votes polled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The total votes polled by the Congress in the four states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana are 4,90,77,907 as per the election commission’s tabulations as against 4,81,33,463 votes polled in these states.
The tabulations show that the opposition parties contesting together will get more votes than the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. The meeting here at the residence of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge is to discuss the most crucial seat sharing that was avoided in view of the Assembly polls.
Congress BJP
CHHATTISGARH 6602586 7234968
MADHYA PRADESH 17571582 21116197
RAJASTHAN 15667947 16524787
TELANGANA 9235792 3257511
TOTAL 4,90,77,907 4,81,33,463
The INDIA bloc calculations were made by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in its first meeting in Patna that the BJP can be definitely ousted from power in the Lok Sabha elections if all join hands to field single candidate each against the BJP candidate. Their gross votes any day will be more than the votes polled by the BJP.
Trinamul Congress chief and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called for the seat sharing under INDIA alliance for 2024 polls, making it clear that the results of the recently held Assembly polls were a “defeat of the Congress party and not of the people.”
“I still believe that if there is seat sharing [among parties in the INDIA bloc] the BJP will not return to power in 2024,” Ms. Banerjee said while participating in a debate in the State Assembly. The Trinamool Congress chairperson said that the results of the recently held Assembly elections were a “defeat of the Congress party and not of the people”.
The remarks of the Chief Minister came a day after the BJP wrested Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh from Congress while retaining the power in Madhya Pradesh and the Congress party bagged Telangana in the recently held Assembly elections. The Trinamool chairperson stressed that there were repeated requests of political parties for seat sharing in the Assembly polls but the Congress did not accept it. “If there was an alliance such a situation would not have emerged,” the Chief Minister said. She added that along with ideology there is a need for strategy.
Mamata Banerjee pointed out that there was a very small difference of vote percentage between Congress and BJP and some parties of INDIA alliance contested against Congress and split the votes. The Chief Minister expressed hope the Opposition parties under the INDIA banner will work together and correct the mistakes in future.
As regards the bloc meeting on Wednesday, Mamata said she was not contacted for the meeting. “Nobody had contacted me. I have events lined up in north Bengal from December 6 to December 12,” Ms. Banerjee said, stressing that even if the invitation is extended to her, it would be difficult for her to attend, remaining non-committal on sending her party’s representative to the meeting.
