The most crucial, however, will be his discussions with the leaders from West Bengal where the party is vertically divided with one group wanting to go with the Left and another seeking an electoral alliance with the ruling Trinamool Congress like in the last Assembly elections in 2011.
New Delhi : Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday instigated discussions on the poll preparations with the party leaders of the states going for elections in April-May this year.
For the state specific interaction, states had been given different dates. The first lot of the party leaders who interacted with him on Wednesday was from Tamil Nadu, while a Puducherry is the next to be discussed on Thursday.
The most crucial, however, will be his discussions with the leaders from West Bengal where the party is vertically divided with one group wanting to go with the Left and another seeking an electoral alliance with the ruling Trinamul Congress (TMC) alike in the last Assembly elections in 2011.
The discussions are on top priority for Rahul, hence he has postponed his trip to Bundelkhand by a day to reach there only on Saturday, as Friday was already allotted to Bengal leaders, sources said. Rahul is expected to spend two days in Bundelkhand interacting with the farmers.
Rahul broached the issue of alliance with the regional parties during his interactions with the Tamil Nadu leaders. Sources said that most state leaders preferred to renew the alliance with the DMK of former CM M Karunanidhi, while some lobbied for forging an alliance with AIDMK of CM Jayalalithaa. Rahul, however, enquired if the party would gain by aligning with some small regional parties instead of the two biggies in the election for the 234-member Assembly.
He also seized the opportunity to find out preparations for the party elections in the state. There may not be much discussion on the 30-member Puducherry Assembly elections as satisfied with the state leader’s efforts to strengthen the organization, the party is going to polls on its own,.
Kerala is also not expected to take much time as the Congress will be contesting the elections for the 140-member Assembly with the same regional parties in the UDF with whom it is in the government, though the issue of projecting the CM may have to be resolved.
It is the West Bengal where the main rivals in the contest are the Left Parties that the Congress can’t think of any kind of alliance with, not even an undeclared understanding. The party leadership was making efforts to tie up with Mamata’s TMC but she strategically prefers the Congress to fight on its own to cut into the anti-incumbency votes of the Left. The West Bengal Assembly has 294 members.
The party source said that banking on the popularity of the 79-year old Tarun Gogoi as the chief minister for the last 15 years, the Congress may contest the 126-member Assam Assembly elections also on its own.
Some desertions from the party, including that of his senior minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who defected to BJP last month, may compel the central leadership to opt for a younger face in place of Gogoi. Source say Gogoi will push for his 33-year old son Gaurav Gogoi, who is currently a Lok Sabha MP.
