Congress wants to be nucleus of alliance

The Congress wants to be the nucleus of the anti-BJP parties at the national level, but the Nitish Kumar-led front not only defeated the BJP in Bihar last year but proved its governance card is better than the BJP, which contested in Bihar under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Signalling that there will be no tie-up at the national level by the party, Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed questioned whether there has been any (regional) party which has a strong presence in Bihar as also in Haryana, and in faraway Kerala and Bengal.

“Some parties have very strong presence in one particular state and that particular party has hardly any presence in the neighbouring state. So, alliances are taking place. We are in alliance with Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav in Bihar,” he said.

We are in alliance in Kerala with other Kerala-based parties. So, alliances are happening everywhere, but alliances happen according to the circumstances of a particular state,” Mr Ahmed reiterated, adding that the “reality” is that there are state-level tie-ups. Mr Ahmed was replying to a volley of questions on the JD(U) chief and Bihar CM’s call for a national alliance to take on the BJP in the 2019 general election.

He made light of a question on whether Mr Nitish Kumar would be the “bridegroom” and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi just his “best man” in the 2019 elections, suggesting that it was the media that was playing on certain statements. “By the time 2019 approaches, things will slide so much for the Modi dispensation and BJP that there will be no need for any alliance,” he said, adding that the people of India will themselves pitch for “making an RSS- and BJP-mukt Bharat”.

To persistent questions on Mr Nitish Kumar’s statements of “an RSS-free India”, Mr Ahmed said Mr Rahul Gandhi as also he himself have good relations with the Bihar CM and “everyone should have ambition”.

The Congress had last week dismissed as “too premature” party leader Digvijay Singh’s remark that the Congress is ready to work with Mr Nitish Kumar at the national level to bring about the “largest possible unity” among parties to defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.