Mamata wants to discuss the manifesto as the INDIA bloc decides on its route

During the two-day meeting of the group in Mumbai, Mamata Banerjee, the leader of the Trinamool Congress, brought up the need to quickly finalize a manifesto for the INDIA bloc, according to leaders with knowledge of the situation, suggesting that the slow progress on some fronts, such as seat-sharing, irked her.

The absence of the West Bengal chief minister and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee at the joint news conference led to rumors that things were not going well inside the Opposition coalition. However, the TMC claimed that there was a scheduling problem.

People with knowledge of the situation said that Mamata recommended at the conference that a manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections be drafted soon to be presented to the electorate, but at this point, other parties have not shown much interest in the idea. Later, she asked that a brief schedule be created so that the election campaign could begin on October 2, the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth.One of the leaders said that the TMC also wanted the seat-sharing discussions to start sooner.

Other leaders remarked that while it wasn’t a big problem, there weren’t any bigger or intractable problems either.

Overall, these officials said, the INDIA alliance now has some distinct goals, and the next two months would be dominated by negotiations and preparations at the state and national levels.

According to two senior executives who requested anonymity, it would require skillful manipulation by the larger parties to bring more than 15 minor organizations that are a member of the 28-party coalition along. “The coordination has been successfully managed by the senior leaders. Now it is up to the panelists to make sure everything runs well,” one of them stated.

Five panels, including a campaign committee and a working group for social media, have been established by the opposition coalition. According to the leaders, they will probably begin working the next week, and seat negotiations will likely start shortly as well.

The leaders said that the alliance’s chances of winning the general election in 2024 depend heavily on seat-sharing agreements in individual states. Talks about sharing seats would focus on two things, they said: increasing the number of shared candidates and avoiding friendly elections in as many states as feasible.

A Congress official warned that “some parties might also demand a broader agreement for the upcoming assembly elections in five states, widely regarded as the semi-finals for the Lok Sabha elections.” “Having an alliance in all 543 Lok Sabha seats may not be really doable. At least 400–450 seats should have common candidates, according to our goal.

Intense discussions between the main INDIA allies are anticipated in states like West Bengal, Punjab, and the Union territories of Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), a supporter of the Congress in West Bengal, has said that it cannot form an alliance with the TMC, which is now in power.

The state unit of the Congress is pressuring it to run alone rather than with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the parliamentary elections in Delhi and Punjab. According to a non-Congress official who is a member of the coordination committee, “arch-rivals Peoples Democratic Party and National Conference might also find it difficult to come together after years of rivalry in Jammu & Kashmir.”

A Congress strategist insisted that the “difficult” states will continue to be the major emphasis. We already have partnerships in Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Tamil Nadu as far as the Congress is concerned. These coalitions will remain for the Lok Sabha elections. We must now consider agreements in new states like Uttar Pradesh, some in the northeast, and even in a couple with smaller groups like Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the leader remarked.

Additionally, the Congress is under pressure to work with other parties. Opposition figures including Lalu Prasad, D Raja, and Uddhav Thackeray encouraged the Congress to act kindly during gatherings in Bengaluru and Mumbai on July 19 and September 1, respectively. According to a number of opposition politicians, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi has reassured the INDIA bloc that the party would try to include everyone in its plans.

After the future rounds of assembly elections are finished, some strategists for the opposition hope that a few more parties would join the alliance.

After the Telangana elections this year, a leader expressed optimism that the BRS (Bharat Rashtra Samithi), the state’s governing party, which has backed the opposition on a number of issues, may join the movement. The BRS has so far refrained from joining the coalition because of the Congress, although Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao actively worked to unite all of the opposition parties.