Today in Politics: INDIA alliance unity in question; farmers resume stir

Mamata hits out at Congress, SP leaves MVA in Maharashtra and the NCP(SP) distances itself from the Congress’s protests in Parliament over the Adani issue during the ongoing winter session.

West Bengal Chief Minister took a dig at the Congress that she would ensure the smooth functioning of the INDIA bloc given a chance to lead it while the SP distanced itself from the protests in Parliament over the Adani issue. (File images)

Can the INDIA bloc stay united? That is the question being asked currently after some recent developments.

First came Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s dig at the Congress that she would ensure the smooth functioning of the INDIA bloc given a chance to lead it.

On Friday, the Samajwadi Party (SP)’s decided to walk out of the Maha Vihas Aghadi (MVA) alliance in Maharashtra after Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray’s close aide Milind Narwekar posted a picture of the Babri Masjid demolition on X with a 1992 quote from Shiv Sena founder late Bal Thackeray that he was proud of those who tore down the mosque.

Mamata’s barb has come at a time when parties like the SP and the NCP(SP) have distanced themselves from the Congress’s protests in Parliament over the Adani issue during the ongoing winter session. The leaders of some other INDIA parties also feel that the Opposition should not be fixated on one issue.

Not just that. The SP believes the INDIA alliance now existed largely “only in the media”. On the other hand, CPI general secretary D Raja says the Left parties were not being accommodated in the alliance as they should have been by larger parties when it came to seat-sharing. He believes that the Congress should introspect.

Earlier this week, the Sena (UBT), too, asked the Congress to introspect and take steps for Opposition unity, referring to the AAP’s declaration that it will go solo in the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls.

Farmers march to Delhi

Punjab farmer leaders are resuming their march to New Delhi on Sunday. The Congress, the de facto head of the INDIA bloc, is under pressure over the grouping’s functioning months after the Lok Sabha elections, especially in the wake of their debacle in the Haryana and Maharashtra polls.

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Making the announcement, farm leader Sarwan Singh Pandher, said this was because farmers “have not received any message from the Centre for talks to address their issues”.

On Friday, a ‘jatha’ of 101 farmers, under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha and Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM, non-political), began to march towards Delhi from their protest site at the Shambhu border for various demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP.

Some farmers suffered injuries due to tear gas shells at the Punjab-Haryana Shambhu border. Around 17 farmers were admitted to hospitals nearby while the rest got treated by rescue teams of Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM).

Besides MSP, the farmers are also demanding a farm debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases (against farmers), and “justice” for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence. Reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 and compensation to the families of farmers who died during the previous agitation in 2020-21 are also part of their demands.

— With PTI inputs