New Delhi: Taking measures to garner votes in the next forthcoming Lok Sabha
elections slated for the year 2019, Congress has announced his alliance with Janata Dal resolving their differences over power positions in the recent Karnataka victory.
After days of intense negotiations between the two parties over key posts, Congress finally conceded to the demands of the JD(S).
The decades-old party has time and again proofed it can handover key posts to the party it has formed an alliance with unlike BJP.
Having scored 79 seats in the 224-member Karnataka assembly with JD(S)- BSP combine victory of 39 seats, being the substantial winner, Congress has handover Karnataka’s key portfolios of finance, excise, power and public works department to the alliance party.
BJP alone emerged to secure 104 seats yet could not for the government due to Congress and JD(S) alliance.
Karnataka Congress leader Shakir Sanadi believes their party has made the right decision to step back into power. He said: “It was a bold step on the part of our leadership. We made the sacrifice in the larger interests of the people who wanted to see a secular and stable government in the state. It is an all inclusive government.”
“Congress-JD(S) is a winning combination and we will definitely sweep the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The main purpose is to oust the BJP from power at the national level in 2019,” he adds.
Other party members also agree with Sanadi. AICC Secretary Manickam Tagore said: “There was also a perception that the Congress has a big brother attitude towards its alliance partners. By offering the lead role to the JD(S), the Congress has shown that unlike the BJP, it treats its allies as equals and even superiors at times.”
Though this alliance decision has been a backdrop for Congress it has always proofed to handover key posts in order to retain the power in states a wise decision to remain in power rather than become an opposition party.
Congress has remained to be a political dominant in Bihar until 1990 but lost when RJD Chief Lalu Prasad ousted Congress in Bihar.
Congress later on formed an alliance with the RJD for the first time in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections which continued for 1999 and 2004 Lok Sabha and the 2005 assembly elections as well.
In the year 1998, the Congress had then won five seats with a vote share of 7.72%, which further dropped to 4.78% in 1999 with only four seats.
But Congress could not get to power in 2009 Lok Sabha Polls scoring only two seats while another four in 2010 Assembly elections.
“Once we agreed to play a junior partner to RJD, the people stopped taking us seriously. At the same time, we have not paid any attention to strengthening our party at the grassroots level or empowering the workers,” senior Congress leader Kishore Kumar Jha said.
“It is sad to see that a party that ruled the state for decades has been reduced to a marginal player,” he adds.
Speaking of Maharashtra’s scenario, Congress formed an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of Sharad Pawar in 1999 to form a coalition government. Ever since then, the two parties have been engaged in a battle of one-upmanship.
NCP party despite winning more seats in 1999 and 2004 assembly elections, conceded the chief minister’s post to Congress while in return demanded more ministerial berths.
NCP used this opportunity to seep into Congress bastion area of Vidarbha. NCP did spread its base across western Maharashtra.
With differences over NCPs base spread across the state, the two parties broke their alliance in 2014, resulting in the victory of the BJP in the assembly elections.
The Congress had then won 42 seats in the 288-member assembly while NCP won 41 seats with a vote share of 17.95% and 17.24% respectively.
However, they have once again joined the hands. While the Congress lost Palghar Lok Sabha seat, the NCP won from Bhadana-Ghondiya constituency in the May 28 by-elections.
In Jharkhand, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in 2013 sought Congress’s support to defeat BJP.
Though Congress initially wanted to lead the alliance, it eventually allowed the JMM to lead.
But then the two parties parted their ways and separately contested the 2014 assembly polls. Congress and JMM both lost scoring only 6 seats and 19 seats respectively. BJP emerged as winner forming a coalition with the support of the All Jharkhand Students Union or AJSU Party, who had emerged victorious in five constituencies.
Congress and the JMM have now decided to join hands once again to prevent the repeat of 2014 leading to BJP’s success.