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Journalism of Courage
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is believed to have written a letter to chief ministers of seven Opposition-ruled states, inviting them to dinner on March 18, with no one turning up. The invited parties cited various reasons — from a wish to maintain a “tactical distance” from the AAP and Budget Sessions to unwillingness to be part of an alliance without the Congress — for not turning up.
While there was no word from AAP on the letter, a PTI report said the letter was sent to the CMs of West Bengal, Bihar, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, and Punjab. While the Trinamool Congress (TMC) refused to say if Mamata Banerjee received the letter, the Janata Dal (United) said Nitish Kumar wants to maintain a “tactical” distance from Kejriwal as well as Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, popularly known as KCR, because of their party leaders’ alleged involvement in the alleged Delhi excise scam. A leader of KCR’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) said the party was unaware of any such invitation. A Jharkhand government source said Hemant Soren had received the invitation but could not make it to Delhi because of the Budget Session in the state Assembly and that the CMs had asked for “a convenient time, somewhere around mid-April”. The office of Pinarayi Vijayan confirmed that the Kerala CM received the invitation, but said he did not go to Delhi because such a meeting was not currently on his agenda. A source in the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said M K Stalin and the DMK would not join any alliance that did not feature its ally Congress.
The AAP did not comment on the CMs, non-BJP and non-Congress, not attending the meeting. “A letter may have been sent by the CM,” said an AAP insider. “He has been meeting many non-BJP CMs and has always enjoyed a good equation with the West Bengal CM and the Telangana CM. I am sure something else will be planned soon.”
Despite talking about uniting against the BJP in the general elections, the Opposition remains a divided group of ideologically disparate parties. The AAP, BRS, TMC and the Samajwadi Party (SP) have indicated that they don’t want to be part of any anti-BJP grouping centred around the Congress, while Tamil Nadu CM Stalin has said that “arguments surrounding a third front should be ignored”. The DMK leader’s position echoes that of the Congress, which has said that a third front will give the BJP an advantage. The Congress — which has strained ties with the AAP, the BRS, and the TMC — has said it is the only party to have “never compromised with the BJP”.
Mamata Banerjee gave the Kejriwal-led dinner meeting a miss and left for Odisha on a three-day visit on Tuesday. She will sit on a dharna in Kolkata on March 29 and 30 in protest against the Centre’s decision to block West Bengal’s MGNREGS funds.
Banerjee on Sunday lashed out at the Congress saying the BJP was trying to make Rahul Gandhi a “hero” to serve its interests. The following day, the Congress accused Banerjee of trying to “weaken anti-BJP alliance” and called the TMC a “Trojan horse” in the Opposition camp. After a meeting at Mamata’s residence on March 17, TMC Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay had said the party was not opposed to the Congress and forging an alliance with the grand old party but expressed reservations about its “big boss” attitude.
Banerjee had skipped an Opposition meeting chaired by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi last year and expressed her desire to ally with regional parties.
A source in the Tamil Nadu CMO said the DMK would not join hands with anyone planning to ally without the Congress. “It has been stated categorically that any move for a third front is equal to weakening the united Opposition against the BJP in the general elections. We will not go for it,” the source said.
Hemant Soren received a “certain communication” from Kejriwal for an Opposition meeting but could not attend because of the ongoing Budget session, according to government sources. “It was not a lukewarm response,” a government source insisted. “Apparently, the CMs asked for a convenient time, somewhere around mid-April.”
Last June, Soren sent MP Vijay Kumar Hansdak and state minister Hafizul Hassan to attend an Opposition meeting convened by Mamata Banerjee in Delhi. Three months earlier, KCR visited Jharkhand and addressed a joint press conference with Soren. He also met JMM founder Shibu Soren, the Jharkhand CM’s father, to discuss an anti-BJP alliance.
A JD(U) leader close to Nitish Kumar said, “Our leader is not against any broader front but prohibition is very close to his heart and hence staying away from the Kejriwal meeting and K Kavitha’s (KCR’s daughter) dharna was tactical. We have always insisted that any Opposition alliance has to be led by the Congress because it is still the principal opponent of the BJP.”
Kumar has said he will embark on a bid for Opposition unity nationally after Bihar’s Budget Session, which will conclude by the end of this month.
The Kerala CMO said Vijayan had received Kejriwal’s invitation but did not go to the meeting as such a “meeting of non-BJP chief ministers was not on the present agenda”.
Earlier this month, when various non-BJP CMs wrote a letter to Narendra Modi in protest against the arrest of Kejriwal’s number two Manish Sisodia in the alleged Delhi excise scam, Vijayan did not join them and instead wrote separately to the prime minister to highlight his concerns and seek the PM’s intervention.
The Kerala CM was also absent from the birthday celebrations of M K Stalin earlier this month that was attended by a host of Opposition leaders, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. The Left and the Congress are bitter rivals in Kerala but allies in West Bengal and Tripura.
Telangana State Planning Board vice-chairperson B Vinod Kumar, a BRS leader, said the party was not aware of any invitation from Kejriwal.
The party has been working on its expansion plans since last year. The BRS was among those behind the letter to PM Modi protesting against Sisodia’s arrest. Apart from the meeting with the Sorens, KCR also met former PM H D Deve Gowda and former Karnataka CM H D Kumaraswamy last May in Bengaluru, and Kejriwal in New Delhi; travelled to New Delhi in July and met SP president Akhilesh Yadav. Two months later, KCR travelled to Patna to meet Nitish Kumar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, and Deputy CM Tejaswi Yadav.
The BRS rally in Khammam on January 19 — where the party unveiled its national ambitions — was attended by Kejriwal, Vijayan, Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Man, Akhilesh Yadav, and CPI national general secretary D Raja.
— With inputs from ENS Kolkata, Chennai, Ranchi, Patna, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad
