The Congress will be fighting the next Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the NCP, DMK, RLD, IUML and the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference in five states. However, it has yet to decide who could be its pre-poll allies in Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand.
The current thinking in the Congress is to fight the next general elections with the allies in the UPA in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir, this was clearly indicated by the party.
“We have not broken alliance since 2004”, a Congress official said suggesting that the Trinamul Congress, RJD, LJP, TRS left the UPA on their own.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has constituted a six-member sub-group on pre-poll alliances under the chairmanship of A.K. Antony in November 2012. It held the first meeting sometime back.
The RJD, led by Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Samajwadi Party and the BSP have been backing the Manmohan Singh government from outside “unconditionally”.
Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav is keen to have a pre-poll alliance with the Congress in Bihar this time while the Congress leaders, including its MPs, are speaking in different voices whether to ally with the SP or the BSP or go on its own in Uttar Pradesh.
Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has to decide whether to ally with the BJP under Narendra Modi’s leadership or re-ally with the Congress in West Bengal. This is because her party will find it difficult to fight on three fronts — Left, Congress and the NDA — simultaneously.
A section of the Congress views that a pre-poll alliance with Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik), led by Babulal Marandi, will be beneficial than the JMM.
In Karnataka, the Congress will go alone but its strategy for Andhra Pradesh has yet to take a shape. It had fought 2004 Lok Sabha and the state Assembly polls with the TRS.