Congress prefers state-specific tieups

The Congress is in no mood to have a national-level alliance with “like-minded parties” to defeat the BJP but prefers to have state-specific alliances even as JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal want to occupy the anti-BJP space at the national level after defeating the saffron party in Bihar and Delhi, respectively.

The Sonia Gandhi-led party, which already has pre-poll alliances with “like-minded parties” in Kerala, Bihar and TN, could extend this experiment to UP, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Gujarat, J&K and Goa, besides a tactical understanding with anti-BJP parties in West Bengal. This means it could prevent the BJP from getting credible allies in these states barring Gujarat and Goa where the saffron party has been in power.

The Congress came to power in 2004 due to state-specific alliances and thus became the main player against the BJP at the national level after it realised that no regional party could occupy this space on its own at an all-India level.

Meanwhile, the Congress on Thursday dismissed as “too premature” party leader Digvijay Singh’s remark that it is ready to work with the Bihar CM Nitish Kumar at the national level to bring about largest possible unity among parties to defeat the BJP in the 2019 LS polls. The party, at the same time, said it has always worked in the larger interest of democratic, secular and progressive forces in the country. “It is too premature to comment on it,” senior party spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters. He was asked for his views on Mr Singh’s remark that the Congress is ready to work with Mr Kumar at the national level to defeat the BJP. The Congress is also a part of the coalition government in Bihar. Mr Sharma, however, added that as was seen in the Bihar polls and the current Bengal polls, the Congress has always worked to strengthen secular and progressive forces in the country.