Congress forms 5-member committee: Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel roped in to discuss LS seat-sharing with allies

New Delhi: Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge has given key national roles to former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and ex-Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel who will now negotiate Lok Sabha seats with important INDIA partners.

There was speculation over the future of the two veterans after they lost the state polls and Kharge named new state teams of younger leaders recently. Minutes ahead of the crucial INDIA alliance meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday, Kharge announced a five-member Congress National Alliance Committee comprising Gehlot, Baghel, Salman Khurshid, Mohan Prakash with Mukul Wasnik as its convenor.

Effectively, Gehlot and Baghel and the other panel members will now use their political experience and skills to negotiate Lok Sabha seats with INDIA allies like NCP chief Sharad Pawar, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, TMC chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, DMK chief and Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, Bihar chief minister and JD-U chief Nitish Kumar and RJD leader Lalu Yadav ahead of the 2024 parliamentary polls.

“Yes, this is a very significant move by the party chief and shows his commitment to the INDIA alliance. The five-member panel has two former chief ministers Gehlot and Bhagel who have experience in fighting elections and know national politics very well. They will seek reports seat-wise from the respective state in charge of the AICC and then brief the Congress chief. There is an INDIA coordination committee also in which senior leader Kc Venugopal is our representative. This committee will discuss the alliances. But the presence of our senior leaders in the panel will also help deal with the veteran allies like Mamata Banerjee, Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar and Sharad Pawar and younger leaders like Akhilesh Yadav,” AICC in charge of Jharkhand Avinash Pande told this channel.

“The INDIA alliance is committed to seat sharing for the next Lok Sabha very soon and we will put up a single candidate against the BJP. The meeting in Delhi is taking place to take some big decisions,” he said.

The Congress move to form an alliance panel came a day after Rahul and Priyanka chaired a meeting to review the party’s Lok Sabha poll preparations in Uttar Pradesh where the Congress is hoping to have a set alliance with SP and RLD. In Maharashtra, the Congress is in alliance with NCP and Shiv Sena UBT so seat sharing will not be much of a problem, said party insiders.

Work is in progress in Jharkhand where the Congress has an alliance with RJD and JMM. “We have already done a review of party organization and the coordination committee on all the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state. As per the set-sharing in 2019, we are likely to get 9 seats but we are strengthening our organization across the state so that we can help the allies as well. The final tally however will be discussed by our high command,” said Pande.

“In Bihar too, there is an alliance of INDIA parties in power and seat sharing should not be a problem. There too the high command will finalize how many seats we contest,” he added.