New Delhi. The first meeting of the Election Coordination Committee of the India Alliance will be held tomorrow at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s residence in Delhi. Seat division will be the main agenda of the meeting. It is reported that preliminary discussions have been held to find a mechanism for seat allocation. A joint campaign plan will also be one of the important topics of the meeting.
Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, who has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning, may not attend the meeting. The party has not taken a decision on sending Abhishek’s replacement. The ED is investigating irregularities in the recruitment of staff in government schools in West Bengal. Apart from this, ED is investigating cattle smuggling and coal scam.
The Trinamool hopes that the leaders of the India alliance will consider Abhishek’s absence and speak against the ED’s action.
Although the coordination committee will consider the propaganda committee’s suggestion of a joint rally, the leaders want to find a formula for seat distribution. Especially for Trinamool, Janata Dal, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, Aam Aadmi etc.
“We will discuss campaigns, social media, media strategies and everything. For all this we need to find a proper system of seat allocation,” said a senior opposition leader.
KC Venugopal (Congress), TR Balu (DMK), Hemant Soren (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), Sanjay Rawat (Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD) and Raghav Chadha will attend the meeting at Pawar’s residence. (AAP), Javed Ali Khan (SP), Lallan Singh (JD-U), D Raja (CPI), Omar Abdullah (National Conference) and Mehbooba Mufti (Peoples Democratic Party).
The proposal is to start the campaigns by organizing at least five rallies across the country. The proposal of the campaign committee is to hold joint rallies in Chennai, Guwahati, Delhi, Patna and Nagpur. The idea is to focus on one theme at each rally. The campaign committee has also suggested holding joint rallies in the states and Uttar Pradesh where assembly elections are due later this year.
“One topic at a rally, that’s the idea. Social justice will be the theme of the Patna rally. The rally in Chennai will be about the attacks on the federal structure. Subjects of North India including Manipur in Guwahati. Secularism in Nagpur also speaks to the politics of hatred and polarization. In Delhi, the focus will be on unemployment and inflation,” said a leader.