With seat-sharing talks between Congress, CPI and CPM having reached a dead end in poll-bound Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, the two Left parties have decided to contest the polls on their own.
The CPM is set to contest 17 seats in Rajasthan, three in Chhattisgarh and four in Madhya Pradesh, and the CPI will contest 16 in Chhattisgarh, 12 in Rajasthan and is likely to field candidates on about nine seats in MP, according to a report.
In Telangana, both parties are in advanced stages of negotiation with Congress, the Times of India reported. Both parties are expected to get two seats each in the southern state.
CPM (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram has reportedly expressed his displeasure over the failure of parties in the INDIA bloc to reach a consensus for the upcoming state polls. An alliance in the polls would have been helpful in the process for the 2024 elections, he said.
“The opinion of the majority in the INDIA bloc is that this bloc was formed with the 2024 Parliament elections in mind. That was the declared objective. However, in the states also, we wish it would have happened. There should have been greater coordination and cooperation and that would have been helpful in the process for the 2024 elections,” Yechury said, according to the TOI report.
CPI’s A Raja, however, criticised the Congress’ unwillingness to show the “spirit of accommodation” toward its junior partners in the INDIA bloc.
Incidentally, the Left parties’ decision to contest the polls on their own comes days after a sharp exchange between Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress leader Kamal Nath over seat-sharing in Madhya Pradesh. Though the bitter back-and-forth was brushed aside as commonplace in election season, SP and other INDIA partners, including JDU and AAP have since announced their decision to contest the impending polls independently of Congress, preparing the ground for a multi-polar contests not just in Madhya Pradesh, but also in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, where both SP and AAP will field candidates.
