Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Congress to contest fewest seats since 1951

New Delhi: The Congress is set to contest the fewest seats — around 300 — in any Lok Sabha elections since 1951, with the party forging alliances in an unprecedented manner across the country in its effort to dethrone the BJP.

So far, the party has announced 236 candidates for 29 states and Union Territories, but not a single nominee for Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Chandigarh and Ladakh.

It still needs to name the majority of its candidates for Andhra Pradesh, as well as some more in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Odisha. Altogether, this is expected to be about 70-80 candidates, sources said.

The first indication of the grand old party contesting fewer seats emerged during the Congress Working Committee’s Jan 4 meeting where party chief Mallikarjun Kharge said that the focus would mainly be on 255 seats. His statement was backed by internal surveys to identify seats with a high likelihood of victory. Sources said the party also looked at seats and states where the I.N.D.I.A. allies are stronger than the Congress.

The dwindling number of candidates was mainly because of the Congress conceding seats to its allies. The party conceded seats to the RLP and the CPI(M) in Rajasthan, the SP in Madhya Pradesh and the AAP in Haryana. It may also end up yielding seats to the Left parties in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

In Uttar Pradesh, where it contested 67 seats in 2019, the party is fighting only 17 this time. After refusing to enter into any alliance in Rajasthan during the Assembly elections late last year, the Congress has left at least two seats to allies in the Lok Sabha polls, learning some lessons in poll strategy.

A senior Congress strategist said it was a conscious decision to concentrate on strong seats as well as to use limited resources to optimum use.

“It is not about the number of seats you are contesting. It is all about how many you win. There is no point in contesting so many seats in UP if you are not building an organisation,” he said.

However, a section of second-rung Congress leaders are not happy with the strategy as they believe the party is conceding more than needed under the pressure of regional parties. They believe in some states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the Congress is “not playing the second fiddle but the third fiddle” to allies.

They believe the party won in Karnataka and Telangana after eating into the regional party’s vote shares, and not that of the BJP, and it should be replicated elsewhere.