Chhattisgarh election 2018: Congress unable to form alliance with Left, regional parties

NEW DELHI: The Congress has so far been unable to stitch an alliance with the Left Front or regional parties such as the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) in Chhattisgarh.

Several rounds of talks with the GGP, CPI or CPM notwithstanding, the Congress has been unable to reach a seat-sharing arrangement, according to people aware of the matter. The party has been unable to reach an agreement on the number of seats the smaller parties demanded to contest as their share in a potential alliance.

In the case of the GGP, which has a significant presence in eight of the 90 assembly segments, the Congress had expected to seal the deal by parting with three seats.


The regional tribal party’s keenness on an alliance could also be gauged from the fact that its leader Heera Singh Markam had shared the stage with Congress president Rahul Gandhi at a programme in May. However, so far no agreement has been reached.

According to people spearheading the talks, the GGP was seeking five seats, a figure the Congress thought was “overambitious”. When both sides agreed on three seats, the assembly segments demanded by GGP were found unacceptable by the Congress.

“They sought assembly segments where we have sitting MLAs. We cannot cede ground like that,” said a Congress leader, who did not wish to be identified.

Reserved segment Pali-Tanakhar was the main bone of contention, the leader said.

The Congress has a four-time MLA, Ramdayal Uike, from here while the GGP’s Markam has been the main challenger.

The Left Front has also been playing hardball. The problem with the CPI, which had a bigger vote share of 0.66% than the CPM’s 0.08%, has been the choice of seats.

A Congress functionary told ET, “The CPI has been adamant on its demand for seats where the Congress has sitting MLAs. The talks have hit a roadblock as they realise that for them it is also a matter of remaining relevant in seats where they command a fair amount of votes.”

The seats demanded by the CPI include Konta, Dantewada and Chitrakoot – all of which have Congress MLAs.

In Konta, CPI’s Manish Kunjam polls considerable votes against Kawasi Lakhma, sole survivor of the Maoist attack that wiped out Congress leadership in 2013.