Unlike Uttar Pradesh where the Congress is unwilling to be dictated to by the Samajwadi Party (SP), the party's leaders from Bihar on Tuesday unanimously endorsed the central idea of making compromises to ensure a smooth going for the Opposition combine INDIA in the next parliamentary elections.

At a meeting of Bihar leaders with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi to decide strategy for the 2024 battle, there were no contrarian voices on the alliance with the RJD, JDU and Left parties. The local leaders didn’t demonstrate any rigidity on the number of seats either, stressing on “coalition dharma” and a realistic assessment of the ground reality.

Bihar leaders suggested that the party should sit at the negotiating table with winnable candidates in mind instead of the number of seats. “If we have four candidates who can win, we should demand seats for them. If we have five or six, we can lay our claim on them, only on the basis of realistic estimate,” a leader who was present at the meeting told The Telegraph, recalling the negotiations inside.

The miserable plight of the Bihar Congress doesn’t allow it to make unreasonable demands but that’s not the case in other states where the party has a feel of resurgence.

Uttar Pradesh is an example where the party sees an upswing in fortunes and the meeting of local leaders with the central leadership last week amplified the dilemma. The dominant view was that the negotiations should be held on “equal terms” as the Samajwadi Party was not in a position to perform well without the Congress prop.

The confusion was not only on the number of seats but the very question of coalition itself. The state Congress leaders conceded they needed an alliance to defeat the BJP but there was no unanimity on an understanding with Akhilesh Yadav’s SP. The majority of leaders advocated an alliance with Mayawati’s BSP, arguing that her presence in INDIA would help get Dalit votes across the country. They were also not averse to a combined fight, with SP, BSP and Congress coming into an embrace.

One senior leader from Uttar Pradesh told The Telegraph: “The perception that the Congress is very weak because we polled only 2 per cent votes in the last Assembly election is completely erroneous. We have recovered significantly and the Muslims have made up their mind to support the Congress in the Lok Sabha election. If the SP is thinking of dismissing us with 5-10 seats, there will be no alliance. We should seriously explore the BSP option.”

Akhilesh is strongly averse to Mayawati’s inclusion into INDIA but he knows a Congress-BSP alliance will have a debilitating impact on SP’s prospects.

Another Congress leader said: “Yadavs have shown a tendency to drift towards the BJP in Lok Sabha election. Most of the seats the SP won in 2019 are Muslim-dominated. Akhilesh knows the Muslim mind and will not run the risk of excluding the Congress. Our ongoing yatra is getting excellent responses. All this is not being done for 5-10 seats. We will not contest less than 20 seats.”

The leader explained: “The best option available for INDIA is a three-way alliance between SP, BSP and Congress, of course with the addition of Jayant Chowdhary’s RLD. We can snatch 30-40 seats from the BJP and kick Modi out of power.”

The leader added: “Why Akhilesh is giving bad vibes to Mayawati is bewildering. We hope Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar will ensure Mayawati’s inclusion in the coalition.”

That the seat-sharing is going to be a knotty affair was manifested in the meeting of the Congress’s central leadership with Punjab leaders too. At the meeting on Tuesday evening, Punjab leaders said people were getting disenchanted with the AAP and the Congress was placed to win many seats. While the Congress continues to struggle to recover the lost ground in Delhi, leaders from Punjab have an entirely different perception of their strength.