Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 30
For the first time in months since the Congress began displaying rigidity in alliance politics, party veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad today admitted to lack of generosity, explaining why it was so.
Congress general secretary and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Azad said new parties had emerged on India’s political landscape and were demanding a lion’s share of seats. “If we concede to this demand by regional parties, they will become national parties and we will become a regional force,” Azad said when asked to comment on AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal’s charge that Congress president Rahul Gandhi would be singularly responsible should the BJP win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Azad, who has seen the Congress evolve over the years, said his party had shown more generosity in striking alliances than any other party but the policy had cost the Congress dear. The party had ceded space to regional players at its own peril.
Azad’s comment clearly indicates a shift in Congress thinking which has now decided to revive itself, no matter how long the haul. “I speak from my experience of decades in politics. No party has been as generous in alliances as the Congress, starting with Tamil Nadu, Kerala, UP and Bihar. But at what cost?” asked Azad in the wake of Opposition leaders, including BSP chief Mayawati and SP president Akhilesh Yadav besides Kejriwal, accusing the Congress of arrogance in seat- sharing negotiations,
“The parties forget how generous we have been. We reached the second,third and even fourth positions in states due to our policy of perpetual alliances. But the fact is if we keep ceding a lion’s share to new parties, they will grow at our cost,” Azad explains.
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2vtNpvb
via Today’s News Headlines
No comments: