Both BSP and JCC leaders, however, say their alliance will remain intact.
New Delhi: vAhead of the Lok Sabha elections, signs of bitterness have surfaced in the alliance between the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Ajit Jogi-led Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) in Chhattisgarh, as both the parties are adamant on their demand for a greater number of seats for sharing for the upcoming general elections, sources have said.
To take on the BJP government led by former Chief Minister Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh’s Assembly election, last year in October, the JCC had formed an alliance with the BSP, and the Communist Party of India (CPI) joined the alliance later. The alliance contested all 90 seats in the state, with 55 seats for the JCC, 33 for the BSP and two for the CPI.
Despite the JCC-BSP alliance in the Chhattisgarh Assembly polls, the Congress took a huge lead in Chhattisgarh and dethroned Raman Singh. The Congress won 68 seats in the 90-member Assembly, while the BJP was relegated to a distant second spot, winning just 15 seats.
A source close to the JCC told The Sunday Guardian: “JCC is pushing for a greater share of seats than what it got in the Assembly elections last year, while BSP supremo Mayawati is not willing to give an upper hand to Ajit Jogi’s JCC in the Lok Sabha polls. BSP has put forth Mayawati’s demand for an equal distribution of seats for the Lok Sabha elections in the state.” According to sources, last year, BSP had allowed JCC to take the lead in the Assembly elections and had given more seats thinking that the JCC would perform better, but the performance of the JCC was not as per their expectation. The BSP had managed to win two seats, while the JCC had won only five Assembly seats in Chhattisgarh.
Though leaders of both the alliance partners—JCC and BSP—have been saying that their alliance will remain intact, so far they have failed to finalise any seat sharing agreement.
Nitin Bhansali, spokesperson of JCC, told The Sunday Guardian: “The alliance between the BSP and JCC is intact and both the parties will contest the Lok Sabha polls together. A decision on seat sharing has not been taken yet and both the parties are in the process to finalise a seat sharing deal soon.”
“There is no bitterness in the alliance partners and both the parties are confident of taking the alliance further to contest the Lok Sabha polls together. The seat sharing agreement will be finalised this month and a formal announcement will be made,” Bhansali added. However, the tone of JCC leaders on the ground is different from the official line of the party, as most of the leaders are pushing for a greater share of the seats in the state. On the condition of anonymity, a senior JCC leader told The Sunday Guardian: “Ajit Jogi has potential to alter the election results in Chhattisgarh and, therefore, the JCC has been demanding 7 seats out of the total 11 Lok Sabha constituencies. The JCC will not consider any offer that is lesser than what it deserves.”