Congress To Initiate Seat-Sharing Talks With INDIA Group Parties In Odisha Soon

Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the upcoming elections, Congress is likely to initiate talks with other constituents of INDIA in Odisha regarding sharing of seats in the second week of January. The focus is expected to be on seat sharing for Assembly election in the state.

As per sources, the dates of discussion with the Left parties like CPI & CPM and JMM will be announced by the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) after the three-day visit of Odisha in-charge Ajoy Kumar to the state from Saturday.

The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has also asked the state leadership to start the process of discussion and complete it early as elections are around the corner, TNIE reported.

Though Congress is not in a mood to leave more than 15 of the 147 Assembly seats to the INDIA constituents, the party on its own appears to be lacking winning candidates in more than half of the Assembly seats. The Left parties are also not strong enough in the state electorally to field candidates in more than five seats. The JMM’s base is limited to Mayurbhanj where it can field candidates with some prospects of winning, the report said.

As far as seat adjustment for the Lok Sabha elections is concerned, Congress is ready to leave three seats – Bhubaneswar, Aska and Mayurbhanj – for the allies. The number may reduce, but there is no chance of sparing more seats for the partners, sources said. There are 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha.

According to OPCC president Sarat Pattanayak, Congress will consider proposals of INDIA constituents after the seat-sharing talks start. The party will assess the feasibility of leaving the indicated seats to allies and on that basis, the talks will proceed. At present, the state unit is busy with new AICC state in-charge.

Meetings of state executive, political affairs committees and other committees have been convened on Saturday and Sunday.

Senior CP( (M )leader Janardan Pati said the party had won Bonai Assembly seat in Sundargarh district in 2019 elections and this time it is likely to contest from seven to eight seats.