From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The opposition unity for forging an united front to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP in the 2024 general elections gained further momentum on Tuesday when former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and Telangana Chief Minister K Chnadrashekhar Rao expressing readiness to be part of a united front that includes the Congress.
While Akhilesh Yadav, after meeting Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Lucknow, said the opposition would together oust the BJP from power to save “democracy, constitution and the country”, sources close to the Telangana Chief Minister said he is now open to the idea of joining a coalition led by the Congress though he still has reservations about Rahul Gandhi as the face of the Opposition alliance.
The Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), which led a campaign for a non-BJP and non-Congress “federal front” ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, is now open to the idea of joining a coalition led by the Congress, top sources said.
Despite its own national ambitions, the K Chandrashekar Rao or KCR-led party is ready for a more “accommodating stance” which, sources said, has come about from the realisation that the Modi government is destroying every regional leader using its agencies and BRS was no exception.
KCR’s daughter and MLC K Kavitha is facing an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case.
Ever since the party changed its name to the BRS – it was known as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in its earlier avatar – it has been holding rallies and political programmes in various states (the latest in Maharashtra), but also engaged in a bitter tussle with the Congress on its home turf of Telangana.
Sources in the BRS said that the party wants the Congress to realise its depleted national strength and negotiate with regional parties for a pre-poll alliance.
“All we are saying is that the Congress must get its fair share, where it is strong. But where other regional parties are strong, the Congress must make way. This is the only way an Opposition alliance will work and eventually be effective,” a party leader close to KCR said.
The leader added that the party was not comfortable either with a Narendra Modi versus Rahul Gandhi narrative for 2024. “The Opposition is sure to lose on that binary. It was tested in 2019. There are people within the Opposition, such as (Bihar CM) Nitish Kumar and (West Bengal CM) Mamata Banerjee, who have proven track record of administration. What has Rahul Gandhi achieved? He is not even the official leader of his party. Nor does he have the courage to announce himself as a PM candidate.”
Another leader pointed out the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections to illustrate that Opposition unity must be shaped keeping regional equations in mind. At the time, he said, the Congress wrested a significant number of seats from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and “ended up hurting it when it failed to convert a majority of its share”.
Sources said that the BRS is keen on “meaningful” alliances and will work to bring the Opposition together. A lot of things would be finalised during discussions between various parties over the next few months, sources said.
After a recent visit to Delhi, where Nitish met leaders of various parties, including the Congress, the Bihar CM had said he would be talking to other regional parties, including the BRS, to forge an Opposition alliance.
While stressing that their priority was “the Assembly polls” later this year, the leader close to KCR said coming elections across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka would be watched for any change in Congress fortunes. “Negotiations will be informed by these results.”
In public, the Congress and BRS remain bitter enemies. In October last year, Rahul mocked the TRS name change to BRS, and said KCR was free to call his party “international” if he liked. The BRS shot back, with KCR’s son and state minister K Taraka Rama Rao or KTR saying the “wannabe PM” must first win Amethi (the family seat from where Rahul lost to Smriti Irani last year).
BRS leaders say another stumbling block is differences between parties over the key national issues to take up in the 2024 polls. While Rahul seems intent on his Adani attack, the BRS says it is only one among the many points it wishes to highlight.
“We have to expose the BJP’s lies. We have to inform the public of the truth. We have to tell people how the BJP has actually failed on all the promises it has made. We have to expose whose national security has been compromised on the China border,” the leader said.
The party, sources said, is aware of the challenge it is facing in shaping narratives, given the BJP’s organisational strength and hold over social media – and trying to change that.
After the results of the Karnataka assembly elections are declared on May 13, opposition unity talks would gather speed when work on different aspects of the unity project like the common minimum programme and seat sharing would begin. There are many problems on the way.
However, these differences are not big and can be bridged with deft negotiations, a leader said.
