Behind absence of some non-BJP parties from move to skip Parliament inauguration, a divided Oppn House

Opposition sources said the BRS will issue a separate statement announcing its decision to stay away from the new Parliament building event.

Despite having taken a strident position against the Modi-led BJP government over various issues in the past few months, the BRS’s decision not to be part of the joint statement reflects the faultlines in the Opposition camp.

With the high-stake Telangana Assembly elections slated in December this year, both the ruling BRS and the Congress – who will be pitted against each other in a triangular contest involving the BJP – would possibly prefer to keep an arm’s length from each other. The Congress, surprisingly, had not invited KCR to the swearing-in of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar in its newly-formed Karnataka government event last Saturday.

PM Modi visits new Parliament House, in New Delhi. (PMO)

The BRS leaders had criticised senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha and had joined the Opposition’s protests in Parliament for demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into allegations against the Adani group.

Interestingly, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) supremo Nitish Kumar, who has met the heads of various regional parties in recent weeks as part of his attempts to bring all of them on a common platform against the BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, has also avoided meeting KCR so far.

Opposition sources however said that KCR had met Nitish in Patna in August last year and had expressed his commitment to the proposal of a non-BJP front.

Then there are two sets of non-BJP parties: those who are not part of the opposition grouping, such as the BSP, Akali Dal and TDP, and those who while professing to remain equidistant from the BJP and the Opposition have regularly been seen in proximity with the Modi government, such as the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD and the Y S Jagam Mohan Rddy-led YSRCP.

The BSP had long distanced itself from the Opposition. Significantly, Mayawati, had backed Droupadi Murmu in the Presidential election. The Opposition is boycotting the event arguing that PM Modi’s decision to inaugurate the new Parliament building by himself, sidelining President Murmu, is “not only a grave insult but a direct assault on our democracy”.

Mayawati has already declared that her party will not enter into alliance with any party for the Lok Sabha elections. But that may be the case for several other parties in the Opposition, whose leaders have argued that their decision to stay away from the May 28 event is based on certain principles which they believe are part of non-partisan politics.

The TDP too had backed Murmu. But its chief N Chandrababu Naidu too is worried about the ground realities. The Assembly election is due in Andhra Pradesh next year and there has been a talk that the TDP and Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena are trying to forge an alliance with the BJP against the YSRCP.

The Sukhbir Badal-led Akali Dal had walked out of the NDA in 2021 during the farmers’ protest against the Modi government’s three now-repealed farm laws. On Monday, the Akali Dal dismissed speculations about the possibility of an alliance with the BJP again, but other Opposition parties are closely watching its moves.

The YSRCP and the BJD have rarely taken a stand against the BJP government. They have backed crucial bills in Parliament, backing the government’s stand on a range of issues. The BJD chief and Odisha CM, Naveen Patnaik, has in fact again ruled out any alliance with a united Opposition soon after calling on PM Modi recently. This was a day after Nitish had called on Patnaik in Bhubaneswar as part of his Mission Opposition unity tour. The position of Andhra CM and YSRCP supremo Jagan is no different either.