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Journalism of Courage
A day after a record number of Opposition MPs were suspended from both Houses of Parliament, the INDIA bloc will meet on Tuesday after three and a half months in Delhi. At the meeting, the regional parties are expected to demand that seat sharing be finalised at the earliest so that they can start selecting candidates and begin campaign programmes, including joint rallies. While caste census is also likely to be on the agenda, the immediate challenge for the alliance is to build consensus on choosing a convener.
The regional parties expect the Congress to table the main agenda of the meeting. On their part, these parties will submit their suggestions to redraw the joint strategy to take on the BJP, which comfortably defeated the Congress in the recent Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. The regional parties had earlier expressed unhappiness about the alliance’s activities coming to a halt as the Congress prepared for Assembly elections in five states. “Evolving a core positive agenda, seat sharing, and a programme to hold joint rallies are among the main points of discussion,” an Opposition leader said Monday.
Sources in the Congress said the alliance’s constituents would discuss an alternative positive agenda to counter the BJP and that the bloc would move forward with the unity theme “Main nahin, hum (not I, we)”. It was one of the Congress’s slogans for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections that saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi come to power for the first time.
A Samajwadi Party (SP) leader said, “The SP will demand discussion on seat sharing. Once distribution of seats is done, the parties can start preparations for selection of candidates, strengthening their organisation, and coordination with the local unit of allies.”
“The differences between the SP and Congress over alliance in the recent Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections will certainly have its effect. The top leaders of the SP and the Congress will discuss the question of an alliance in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the Lok Sabha polls,” said the SP leader, according to whom party president Akhilesh Yadav and senior leader Ram Gopal Yadav will attend the meeting.
A Janata Dal (United) leader said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who took the first steps earlier this year to bring together the parties on one platform would suggest that the INDIA bloc develop a consensus on supporting a caste census. “Also the regional parties which are stronger in the states should be allowed to lead the alliance in their respective states. For example, the SP and Rashtriya Lok Dal should be considered for leading the alliance in Uttar Pradesh and likewise the JD(U) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar.”
Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD said the alliance’s committees formed earlier had been working behind the scenes to prepare for the polls.
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee, meanwhile, expressed confidence that the members of the alliance would iron out all differences, including on the issue of seat sharing. She told reporters in New Delhi that a three-way alliance was “very much possible” in West Bengal between the TMC, the Congress, and the Left.
Earlier on Monday, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal met Mamata and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) supremo Uddhav Thackeray to discuss the political situation.
The INDIA alliance held its first meeting in Patna on June 23, the second meeting in Bengaluru on July 17 and 18, and the third in Mumbai on August 31 and September 1.
