Congress to set up group on alliances: Rahul

Congress to set up group on alliances: Rahul

New Delhi: Congress President Rahul Gandhi addresses at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, in New Delhi, on July 22, 2018. (Photo: IANS)

New Delhi, July 22 (IANS) Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said that a group will be formed to take a call on alliances in the run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

"We are setting up a group to do it," Gandhi told reporters after a meeting of Congress Working Committee, the party's highest decision making body, which authorised him to decide on pre and post-poll alliances.

Alliances are crucial for the Congress to defeat the BJP, which won a majority on its own in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and has since won several state assembly polls.

While Congress has a direct contest with BJP in several states, it has a difficult choice in forging alliances in some others, like West Bengal, where it state unit is divided on whether it should ally with the Trinamool Congress or the Left parties.

Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that her party would like to win all 42 seats, leaving little scope for a tie-up, but not aligning with her will have its own implications as she is emerging as pivot for a Federal Front.

Then in Uttar Pradesh, where the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party have talked of an alliance, the Congress may be left with very few seats.

Congress had deftly forged alliances before the 2004 Lok Sabha polls and had ousted the BJP-led NDA in an unexpected outcome.

--IANS

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