05 January,2024 01:40 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Sanjay Raut/ ANI screengrab
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut stated that the upcoming Lok Sabha elections will be decided by talks on seat sharing between the Sena, Congress, NCP, and Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA).
According to a report in the news agency ANI, Raut said that he has discussed with senior leaders who are a part of a high-level committee. He was quoted as saying, "I discussed with the senior leaders of the party who are a part of the high-level committee. In a few days, we'll sit with the committee formed by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and our primary discussions will come to an end... Our talks on seat sharing with Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena, and Prakash Ambedkar (Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi chief) are almost done. It has been a very positive discussion. We can't see any clashes between the four parties...We are in talks with Congress and Prakash Ambedkar."
Earlier, Congress leadership - including Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi - met in the national capital with Alliance and Manifestor committees of the grand-old party. They went into huddle two times with the first meeting being held of the Congress Alliance Committee at Kharge's residence and the second at the AICC headquarters headed by party Rajya Sabha MP P Chidambaram, the ANI report stated.
According to the report, Mukul Wasnik, convener of the Congress Alliance Committee, indicated discussions on Congress' seat-sharing within the INDIA bloc, while P Chidambaram, heading the Manifesto Committee, mentioned preliminary exchanges of views for Congress' 2024 Lok Sabha election manifesto.
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"The Congress Alliance Committee held deliberations with leaders from various states within the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA bloc) in the last several days. Today, their details were given to party president Kharge, former president Rahul Gandhi and Organization General Secretary KC Venugopal. Now, soon Congress will hold state-wise discussions with other allies of the INDIA bloc," Mukul Wasnik told ANI.
Meanwhile, Chidambaram was quoted as saying about the Manifesto panel meeting, "This was the first meeting of the Manifesto Committee. There will be a meeting again next week regarding the manifesto of Congress for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Preliminary views were exchanged in today's meeting."
With ANI inputs