NEW DELHI: Congress chief
Mallikarjun Kharge
Thursday held two separate meetings with Lok Sabha coordinators from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands as part of the party's preparations for the Lok Sabha polls this year and to ascertain the party's strength on the ground.
Though
Kharge
has stressed that Congress will focus on preparing the ground for all 543 parliamentary constituencies, as a key constituent of the INDIA bloc, it is likely to contest fewer LS seats than it has done in the past.
With negotiations with allies underway - second round of discussions with AAP and SP are scheduled on Friday - the Congress leadership has been holding hectic deliberations with its state level leaders, not only to gauge its strengths across constituencies, but also to ready Congress cadres for their fight against BJP. tnn