From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: First formal meeting of the majority of non-NDA opposition parties scheduled to be held in Patna on June 23 faces many a twists and turns before sustained efforts of Bihar Chief Minister Nitiah Kumar take concrete shape and form to be able to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
While ideally the first and foremost objective of opposition parties should have been to stop the BJP from returning to power in 2024 to save the country’s democratic structures and the Constitution along with revival of economy and restoration of growth that results in generation of employment, some parties appear to be more keen on expanding their political turf without bothering to take into account the negative fallout of their limited approach.
Observers and political experts point out that Nationalist Congress Party, DMK, CPM, CPI, RJD, JD (U), JMM, Shiv Sena (UT) and RSP are not taking the Congress as a rival to their either existence or their sway over people, the Aam Admi Party, Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party are treating the Congress as a potential threat to their fiefdom.
The AAP appear to be insisting that it should both be allowed to expand at the cost of the Congress and be also the part of the opposition front to take on the BJP, the Trinamool Congress wants to keep West Bengal under its control not allowing either the Congress or the CPM any political ground. And the Samajwadi Party continues to believe that it can take on the BJP on its own might and is not ready to concede any ground to the Congress in the biggest state of Uttar Pradesh.
AAP, led by Delhi Chief Minister Arivind Kejriwal, has been insisting persistently that the Congress should first make its stand clear on the Ordinance issue and has made known that he would confront the Congress on the issue at the opposition parties enclave on June 23. The AAP is not ready to concede any ground to the Congress either in Delhi or in Punjab while it is trying to spread its wing in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Similarly, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo is not ready to leave even an inch of the political turf either to the Congress or to any of the left parties. She seems to be convinced that she alone can defeat the BJP. It is strange that the Congress and the CPM to her are bigger dangers than the BJP which is hell bent on controlling states destroying the Centre-State relations as defined in the Constitution.
Former UP chief minister Akhilsh Yadav, in the same vein, appears to be floating on high clouds as he is exuding confidence to win majority of the Lok Sabha seats by uniting backwards, Dalits and Muslims. Yadav’s overconfidence may prove to be too costly for the main task of taking on the BJP with its massive resources, overreach and administrative control.
The fact that all three leaders have publicly expressed reservations on Congress taking the centerstage and have in the recent past spoken about floating a non-BJP, non-Congress front, makes the meeting a keenly watched event.
Banerjee, who had proposed that states like West Bengal should be left entirely to Trinamool Congress, Kejriwal and Yadav need to relook into their strategy for a broader cause. Or else the opposition unity, as in the past, will be a tedious proposal.
The three leaders, who have had overt and covert relations with the BJP in the past, need to draw their lessons and wake up to the challenges that confront not only them but the nation at large.
