As Congress focuses on 255 LS seats in INDIA talks, comparing the number against its poll history

After a series of meetings this week, seat-sharing negotiations for the Lok Sabha elections in the Congress-led Opposition INDIA bloc are off to a rocky start.

Already,the JD(U) and RJD in Bihar have claimed at least 16 seats each, with five for the Congress and three for the Left parties. In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress has reportedly offered the Congress just two of the state’s 42 seats. In Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party has signalled it would contest in 65 seats, leaving just 15 for allies Congress and Rashtriya Lok Dal. In Maharashtra, for which seat-sharing talks began on Tuesday, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has demanded 23 seats, with the remaining 25 to be split between the Congress and Sharad Pawar’s NCP.

The Congress, though, appears to be willing to make concessions for its allies. Talks are being held with the 27 INDIA partners on a state-by-state basis, led by a five-member national alliance committee comprising former chief ministers Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel and senior leaders Mukul Wasnik, Salman Khurshid and Mohan Prakash.

Though the party has plans to appoint coordinators for all Lok Sabha seats to assess the political situation and send feedback, Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge conveyed last week that the party would focus on 255 seats.

If Kharge’s statement means that the Congress will contest 255 seats, it will be the fewest the seats the party has fought in Lok Sabha elections since Independence. Across the 17 Lok Sabha elections so far, between 1951 and 2019, the Congress has contested an average of 478 seats in each.

The fewest seats it has contested so far was in 2004 – which was the India Shining election brought forward by the ruling BJP, led by A B Vajpayee – when it