New Delhi, Jun 26: With the Lok Sabha election less than a year away, the Congress has been exploring possibilities of alliances to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In the first official statement on alliance for the general elections, the Congress on Monday said that tie-ups would be made on a ‘state-by-state’ basis.

"Alliances need to be sewed up state to state. There can be no one-size-fits-all alliance," Congress chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said. His statement came in response to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar's interview, during which he said a united opposition alliance was “not practical” given the regional compulsions of the parties in states.

“Every state has regional parties. The Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress, for example, have been in alliance in Maharashtra, and talks are currently on to sew together the same alliance, but an NCP-Congress alliance cannot be transposed in Gujarat, Rajasthan or Delhi, for in Gujarat we don’t feel the need for any alliance," Surjewala was quoted as saying.

"An RJD-Congress-JD(U) alliance was there in Bihar... we have decided that we (RJD and Congress) will fight that election together, but the RJD and the Congress will not fight together in Uttar Pradesh. There will be different partners," he added.

Opposition parties, including the Congress, had veered around to Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s “one-on-one” formula in states to defeat the BJP in the next general elections.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 26, 2018 12:32 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).