Oppn bloc I.N.D.I.A to start seat-sharing process 'at the earliest'; hold first public rally in Bhopal in Oct

I.N.D.I.A parties will start the process of seat sharing at state level "at the earliest", hold its first public rally in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal in the first week of October and agreed to take up the issue of Caste Census amid objections from Trinamool Congress.

This was decided at the first meeting of the Coordination Committee of I.N.D.I.A held at NCP chief Sharad Pawar's residence in Delhi this evening. The meeting was attended by leaders from 12 parties while Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee could not attend it due to summons by the Enforcement Directorate, which the bloc described as "vendetta politics" of the BJP.

The Coordination committee also authorised the Working Group on Media to decide upon the names of the anchors on whose shows none of the I.N.D.I.A parties will send their representatives.

After the nearly two-and-half hours meeting, the 12 parties issued a joint statement at a press conference. On seat sharing, the joint statement said, "The coordination committee decided to start the process for determining the seat sharing. It was decided that the member parties will hold the talks and decide at the earliest."

Sources said the seat sharing talks will be held at state level since there could not be an overarching formula as different states have different equations. At the meeting, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said that seats which are already held by I.N.D.I.A parties should not be open for discussions and what they should be discussing is those held by BJP, NDA or parties that are not part of either of the coalitions.

Sources said some leaders suggested that a deadline of October 15 should be set but Pawar and Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal said that may not be practical. Leaders expressed hope that they could finalise by October-end. 

Taking forward the joint protest programmes, the statement said the committee decided to hold joint public meetings in different parts of the country and the first one will be held in Bhopal on the issues of rising prices, unemployment and "corruption" of the BJP government.

The 12 parties "present in the meeting agreed to take up" the issue of caste census, on which Trinamool Congress had expressed its concerns earlier. Trinamool Congress had said that it does not have a problem with caste census but it should not be on the basis of religion. At the Mumbai meet, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had objected to some parties' demand for discussing caste census.

Asked whether Trinamool has been taken on board, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said, "Those who are present here… decide these things. we are going to talk to them."

Sources said Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, JD(U) 's Sanjay Jha, and CPI General Secretary D Raja argued for Caste Census should be taken up again. Pawar is learnt to have recalled that the issue was part of statement issued in Bengaluru. 

Sources said the meeting also had discussions on certain media anchors who have been "hostile and unprofessional" and the need to boycott them. The meeting decided to ask the Working Group of Media to prepare the list and not send I.N.D.I.A parties' representatives to their shows. Sources said anchors who are on the radar included Rubika Liyaqat, Sudhir Chowdhury, Amish Devgan, Aman Chopra, Chitra Tripathi, Anand Narshimhan, Shiv Aroor and Gaurav Sawant among others.

Some leaders are learnt to have suggested that the bloc should also identify anchors at state level too and boycott them.