© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Around the same time last year, when Mamata Banerjee convened a meeting of Opposition parties to build consensus on a joint candidate for the Presidential elections, the Congress had grumbled in private. It felt the Trinamool Congress chief’s move was “unilateral”, but it nevertheless attended the meeting to avoid any signal going out of division in the Opposition camp.
Much water has flown down the bridge since then. On Sunday, the JD(U) announced that the first meeting of the anti-BJP Opposition parties for the 2024 polls would be held in Patna on June 12. The Congress was silent. With Mamata having herself proposed such a meeting in Patna, the TMC, as if on cue, declared that the West Bengal Chief Minister would attend the conclave.
Mamata had urged JD(U) supremo and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, when he called on her in April in Kolkata, to take the lead in convening the meeting. Not only did she clearly not want the Congress to take the lead, but she also deftly invoked the start of the Jayaprakash Narayan movement from Bihar in the 1970s, which had united then Opposition parties against Indira Gandhi.
“I have requested Nitishji that just like the JP movement… a meeting should take place in Bihar. A message should go out that the Opposition is together,” Mamata had said.
The Congress too has been tactical on the matter this time, though the TMC dealt another provocation on Monday by wooing away its sole West Bengal MLA. Sensing the reluctance among many Opposition parties to accept its leadership and primacy, the Congress has let Nitish do the groundwork of bringing Opposition parties under one umbrella.
However, the grand old party’s “magnanimity” arises from the fact that it has few options.
For example, the meeting convened by Mamata in June last year for the Presidential elections did not see attendance by parties like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), as they were reluctant to share space with the Congress. Even if the AAP and BRS want to be part of the Opposition unity project now, the animosity between the two parties and the Congress, which is their main rival in states such as Delhi, Punjab and Telangana, has not disappeared.
There was some understanding between the parties over issues in the last Parliament session, but the Congress would be loathe to invite them to a meeting outside the House premises. The Congress had not invited either of the parties to the swearing-in of Siddaramaiah as Karnataka CM earlier this month, for example.
Similarly, the Samajwadi Party, which has in the past been a friend of the Congress, is not too happy to be seen with the party now.
Although the Congress still believes that it should rightfully be at the centre of Opposition unity efforts given that it is the largest among the parties, it suits the Congress for now to let Nitish do the politically difficult manoeuvring of inviting the AAP and BRS. With Nitish looking for a national role, it suits the Bihar CM just fine.
However, even with Nitish in the front, the contradictions between the various Opposition parties are not easy to wish away. One of the emerging tricky issues is the ordinance passed by the Centre taking away most of the Delhi government’s powers. While the AAP wants other Opposition parties to support it, the Congress leadership – under pressure from its Punjab and Delhi units – is treading cautiously.
On this issue, for example, it feels it has nothing to gain. At the same time, the ordinance is arguably another example of the “overreach” by the Central government on the issue of federalism and Centre-state relations over which the Congress has been very vocal.
One big signal that everyone is looking out for, therefore, is whether Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accedes to Kejriwal’s request for a meeting over the issue.
For the time being, Congress leaders have taken the line that “we will cross the bridge when we come to it”. In other words, the party feels it has time to figure out its stand till the Monsoon Session of Parliament, which is two months away, when the government will have to bring the ordinance before the House in the form of a Bill.
Sources said the Congress is toying with ideas like abstaining from voting or staging a walkout after attacking the government – thus averting any overt action in unison with the AAP.
There is another bridge, so to speak, that the Congress is bracing for. The consensus that is building among regional parties, including Congress ally JD(U), is that the Opposition should put up one common candidate against the BJP in as many seats as possible.
That would mean the Congress taking a step back in many of the 421 Lok Sabha seats that it had contested in the 2019 elections. Could the party give a hint in Patna of which side it is leaning?
Mark June 12 on your calendar.
