No alliance with Congress, says JD-S

June 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress Monday reaffirmed that it was in alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), days after a senior leader said the party should go it alone in the Maharashtra assembly elections. "The Congress and the NCP are in alliance since 1999.

May 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - It may be premature but jubilant Congress workers started bursting crackers and dancing to drumbeats Saturday morning as early trends indicated that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was leading over the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Scores of Congress supporters descended at the Congress headquarters in Akbar Road.

May 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Congress spokesperson Veerappa Moily Wednesday said his party will not form any alliance that will upset its poll partner Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. 'We won't do anything which will upset the Trinamool,' Moily told reporters here.

March 28th, 2009 JAMMU - Union Water Resources Minister and senior Congress leader Saifuddin Soz Saturday expressed confidence that his party would return to power after the Lok Sabha elections. Soz, the state Congress chief, is spearheading the Congress campaign in Jammu and Kashmir, where the party has a seat-sharing arrangement with ruling partner National Conference.

March 27th, 2009 KOLKATA - West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Friday said that neither the Congress nor the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be able to cobble up a majority to return to power at the centre. 'The BJP with its Hindutva agenda has lost its appeal and everybody (United Progressive Alliance partners) is estranged from the Congress,' Bhattacharjee said in an interview to a private regional news channel here.

March 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - After its failure to cobble a poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar, the Congress party Monday stuck a deal over sharing of seats with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra. 'We will fight unitedly as alliance partners in Maharashtra.

March 22nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Unmoved by the Congress declaring it would go it alone in Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Saturday asserted that he would stick to the alliance firmed up with the Lok Janshakti Party for the state. Hours after the Congress announced that it would fight 37 of the state's 40 seats, RJD chief Lalu Prasad said: 'We will give only three seats to the Congress and there will be no reconsideration on this.' Yadav told reporters: 'If the Congress wants to field its candidates they can, but (Congress chief) Sonia Gandhi will realise the importance of the RJD after the elections.' The Congress move came after the RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan of LJP earlier in the week unilaterally decided the alliance formula for Bihar, leaving just three seats for the Congress.

March 22nd, 2009 LUCKNOW - Samajwadi Party (SP) General Secretary Amar Singh on Saturday said that the possibilities of an alliance with the Congress have been over. "We were always keen on an alliance with the Congress.

March 18th, 2009 KOLKATA - Activists of Trinamool Congress and Congress party organised a yagna here for the success of the alliance of these two parties in the ensuing elections to the Lok Sabha. This was consequent to the finalisation of the tie-up and sharing of seats between the two parties in West Bengal.

March 7th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress move to announce 24 candidates in Uttar Pradesh amounts to spiking a possible alliance in the state for the Lok Sabha elections, the Samajwadi Party said, adding it would not allot more than 17 seats to the Congress in any tie-up. Miffed at the Congress announcement, Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh told reporters here that this amounted to writing an 'obituary' for a Congress-Samajwadi alliance.

March 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress and its United Progressive Alliance (UPA) partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Wednesday struck an alliance in Maharashtra for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan told reporters that the two parties had arrived at a seat-sharing arrangement for 40 of the 48 seats in the state.

March 2nd, 2009 KOLKATA - West Bengal state Congress president Pranab Mukherjee and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Sunday night held talks to forge an alliance between the two parties for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Senior Congress leader K.

February 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Samajwadi Party Friday said the final decision on any pre-poll alliance with the Congress in Uttar Pradesh would be made in two days. 'The final picture of the proposed alliance with the Congress would emerge in two days,' Samajwadi Party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav told reporters.

January 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh Monday said that an alliance with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh would not be possible without 'friendly fights'. 'There are 7-8 contentious seats in the state where an alliance is not possible and we have to have friendly fights (elections) against each other,' Singh, the party's Uttar Pradesh incharge, told reporters here.

December 27th, 2008 NEW DELHI - Senior Congress leader Karan Singh Sunday said that an alliance between the Congress and the National Conference (NC) would be 'more compatible' as the results indicated a hung assembly in Jammu and Kashmir. 'Personally I feel that an NC-Congress alliance will be more compatible.