JOIN USCrucial Cong-BJP fight in fourth phase
The penultimate round of the Lok Sabha elections to be held on Thursday holds key to some Congress citadels. But the BJP will be making a determined bid to breach them.
Unlike in the previous elections, the Left parties cannot afford to sit in comfort zone in West Bengal as the red corridor is showing signs of cracks, thanks to the Congress-Trinamool alliance.
Interestingly, the fourth phase offers almost the last chance for the Congress and the BJP to put up their best performances, since almost 50 of the 85 seats, which will go to the polls, will have near-straight contests between them . Doing well in these constituencies is critical, for loss in any of these seats will be a gain for the rival.
The Congress is expecting a bounty from Rajasthan where it could win only four seats (out of 25) in 2004. With a resounding victory in the Assembly elections in 2008, the party is looking to make the best of the honeymoon with the voters. It is also expected to do well in Haryana (total 10 seats) whose Assembly the party captured not long ago. In Delhi, the Congress hopes to retain six seats out of seven it won in 2004.
In Punjab, after it lost out to the Akali Dal-BJP combine in the 2007 Assembly elections, the Congress is said to be showing signs of resurgence. The party was routed in 2004 winning only two of the 13 seats, the rest being grabbed by the Akali-BJP combine.
However, with reports that the race for the single largest party is said to be getting closer, the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to put up its best performance. Party sources say the leaders, in the last few days, have given focussed attention to each of these seats so that in a close race like that of Punjab, the party notches ahead.
Amidst reports of the ‘red corridor’ in Bengal becoming vulnerable, the Left Front (LF) has to do its best to keep the fort from being breached by the Congress-Trinamool combine. Hoping that winds of change are blowing across the Left fort, the combine expects to increase the share in this phase.
As regards the crucial state of UP, whose 18 of the 80 constituencies will go to the polls, both the BJP plus allies and the Congress think they stand a chance in some more seats. The entire western UP will go to the polls in this phase. It had produced a mixed result in 2004.
The latest phase is being held after the Congress gave some indications of going in for new allies and that it was ready to sit in the Opposition, both of which has not gone down well with its allies. The Trinamool’s stormy petrel Mamata Banerjee angrily reacted to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s overtures to the new allies and said she was prepared to pull out, if the Congress did not want her party.
The Fourth Front partners such as the SP, RJD and the LJP are increasingly looking towards the Left fearing the Congress may not be willing to go all out to form a government if the numbers were not in its favour. Rahul recently talked of a “long-term perspective” for the Congress, while senior leader Digvijay Singh remarked “heavens will not fall if the Congress did not form government”.
Realising that these statements had not gone down well with the allies, the Congress on Wednesday went on damage control asserting it was steadfastly with the UPA allies. However, spokesman Ashwini Kumar said: “If need be, we will speak to like-minded secular parties but not at the cost of the existing allies.”