Congress-BAP alliance in troubled waters?

JAIPUR: With Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP) refusing to budge from its original demand for five seats and Congress unwilling to concede anything more than the Banswara LS seat and Bagidora assembly seat (for bypoll), a possible alliance between the two before Lok Sabha elections appears to be tottering on the brink.

BAP had sought Banswara and Udaipur LS seats in Rajasthan, Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh, Dahod in Gujarat, and the Dadra and Nagar Haveli seat. With the deadline for filing nominations for the second phase of Lok Sabha elections approaching on April 4, an announcement regarding the alliance between BAP and the Congress is expected soon.

However, with Congress willing to concede only Banswara and Bagidora assembly seats, the tribal party has unilaterally announced its candidates for Banswara, Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Pali, Jalore-Sirohi and Tonk-Sawai Madhopur Lok Sabha seats.

BAP has fielded Rajkumar Roat from Banswara and Prakash Chandra Buj from Udaipur seats – the two seats it was demanding from Congress in Rajasthan. On the other hand, Congress pulled out all stops to convince BAP to withdraw its candidates from Udaipur and Chittorgarh constituencies, but the tribal party is not ready to relent.

BJP, meanwhile, has fielded Congress turncoat Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya in Banswara. Malviya was a Congress MLA from Bagidora assembly seat.

“I do not think the alliance (with Congress) is a possibility anymore. We shall not withdraw the candidatures we have already announced. Even if there was no alliance, Congress could have at least left the Banswara seat open, considering Malviya had betrayed them and joined BJP,” said BAP president Mohanlal Roat.

“When Congress failed to decide on our demands, we announced our candidates. We had been in talks with senior Congress leaders since January. We met Congress’s National Alliance Committee convener Mukul Wasnik in New Delhi. He told us they could leave only Banswara LS seat for us,” Roat added.

“We told them (Congress) that Udaipur and Banswara seats belonged to BJP as it won them twice (2014 and 2019). We said if they leave these two seats to BAP, it might help the INDIA alliance. But they (Congress) disagreed. They told us Congress had nothing to lose in these seats, and it didn’t want to lose ground in Udaipur,” he said.