The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress have tried to outpace each other's brinkmanship in trying to wrest more seats in their negotiations for an adjustment over the number of seats each will contest for the Punjab assembly elections next month.
Their adjustment efforts seemed near breaking-point yesterday as BSP chief Kanshi Ram announced that his party would go it alone.
He added, though, that he had told Congress president Sitaram Kesari that he would take nothing less than 45 of the 117 seats and that now, the ball is in his court.
An All-India Congress Committee office-bearer commented that we also announced that we would give them no more than 20-25 seats, pointing out that the notification was only due on Monday and the last date for nominations was January 20, which still left plenty of time for at least a partial adjustment.
He added that Kanshi Ram had asked the Congress for 40, but had been offered 25.
According to an agency report from Ludhiana, Kanshi Ram has ruled out any alliance with the Akali Dal, but said that there could be a seat adjustment. He said that he expected his party to win at least 32 per cent of the votes.
Congress leaders saw that statement, too, as a pressure tactic.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) is to meet on January 15 to begin finalising the party's candidates and an adjustment could be worked out even after that, the last date for withdrawals being January 23.
In any case, the party under Sitaram Kesari has decided to limit the association to an adjustment on seats and not an alliance like the one they had forged in Uttar Pradesh (UP) a few months ago.
Azad had said on Friday that his party would not sell-out like it had done in U P.
It is also hoping to work out an adjustment with the Communist Party of India (CPI) in Punjab, to which it will have to cede some more seats, though perhaps no more than half-a dozen.
The sabre-rattling may result in the Congress wresting a few more seats from the BSP by the time the campaign begins, but the high profile wrangling has already left the putative partners well behind its chief opponent, the Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance.
The Akali Dal -BJP combine's leaders have already begun to campaign together and show every sign of confidence.
Most reports from the state, too, have rated the Akalis' chances of winning, even without an alliance with the BJP, as bright.
The two parties complement each other, since the Akali Dal appeals largely to the rural population and to Sikhs, while the BJP's supporters are largely urban and Hindu.
The state's population is almost equally divided between Sikhs and Hindus.
The BSP has a strong base among the Scheduled Caste members of both religious faiths. The party's founder and supreme leader, Kanshi Ram, hails from Punjab.
