With a galaxy of political leaders slated to congregate at Nitish Kumar’s grand swearing in ceremony in Patna on November 20, the event is being widely viewed as the first step towards the formation of a national anti-Bharatiya Janata Party front.
The incumbent Bihar chief minister is being seen as the central pole of this future alliance since he has the distinction of defeating Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was projected as the face of the BJP in the recent Bihar assembly poll. Even before he is sworn in as Bihar chief minister for the fifth time, predictions are being made about Nitish Kumar emerging as Modi’s main challenger when the next Lok Sabha elections are held in 2019.
While the future of a new political formation appears uncertain, the present offers immense opportunities for the replication of the Bihar-like grand alliance at the national level. It is this possibility which will bring together leaders of different political parties at a common platform on November 20.
Who's who of Indian politics
Sitting chief ministers Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, Akhilesh Yadav, Oomen Chandy and Tarun Gogoi as well as former chief ministers Sheila Dikshit and Bhupinder Singh Hooda are expected to be in Patna to be at the swearing-in ceremony. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, National Congress Party leaders Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel and Tariq Anwar and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s M. Stalin, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh as well as Communist Party of India (Marxist) chief Sitaram Yechury are also slated to join the celebrations.
Union ministers M Venkaiah Naidu and Rajiv Pratap Rudy will therefore find themselves in a minority at the event which has been billed as a show of strength by non-BJP parties.
Nitish Kumar had also invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi but he will not be going to Patna because of his “prior engagements”. In any case, it would have been difficult and embarrassing for Modi to be present at a programme where his bête noire would be the feted and fawned upon while the prime minister would be forced to play second fiddle to him.
Congress concerns
Although it is still early days yet, Nitish Kumar’s projection as a future prime ministerial candidate is not being viewed enthusiastically by the Congress which would like to see its vice-president Rahul Gandhi in that role. While there are underlying misgivings in the party that the Nehru-Gandhi scion could be reduced to play a supporting role in the proposed multi-starrer, it is also a matter of concern that the Congress will not be in a position to call the shots. The grand old party would then be an adjunct to the regional parties, cheering them from the margins.
“What should be a BJP vs Congress battle would become a BJP vs a National Front and the Congress would, at best, be a member of such a formation,” remarked a senior Congress office-bearer.
While large sections of the Congress are still exulting over its success in Bihar, there are others who believe these celebrations are premature as this electoral victory has further underlined that the grand old party needs the support of crutches in the guise of regional allies. As a pan-Indian party, the Congress should be the lead player of any future alliance, these leaders maintain, as they bemoan the demise of the grand old party’s prime status in the Indian polity.
However, Rahul Gandhi’s supporters are convinced that the Congress will play a pivotal role in bringing together anti-BJP parties just as it did in the case of Janata Dal(U) leader Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav who were threatening to go their separate ways at one stage. While Rahul Gandhi’s chief objective is to contain the BJP and he appears more than willing to join others in this
mission, there are sections in the party who believe the leadership should focus on strengthening and reviving the Congress so that it regains its position as the country’s main political force.
A long way to go
While the Congress is in the throes of this debate, the formation of a possible broad national anti-BJP front has a long way to go. State-level rivalries will make it difficult for regional parties to join hands. It is difficult to imagine that Uttar Pradesh’s political rivals – the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party – could come together on a common platform. Similarly, the Left parties and the Trinamool Congress can never be in the same political formation as they battle each other in West Bengal. It’s the same story in Tamil Nadu where the DMK and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam are the chief political rivals.
But then politics is after all the art of the possible. Who would have imagined that friends-turned-foes – Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav – could again become friends? But they did come together when they realised that their political survival was at stake. Political pragmatism had propelled the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party to enter into an alliance both in Maharashtra and at the Centre even though NCP chief Sharad Pawar had walked out of the Congress on the issue of its president Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origins.
Watch this space.
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The incumbent Bihar chief minister is being seen as the central pole of this future alliance since he has the distinction of defeating Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was projected as the face of the BJP in the recent Bihar assembly poll. Even before he is sworn in as Bihar chief minister for the fifth time, predictions are being made about Nitish Kumar emerging as Modi’s main challenger when the next Lok Sabha elections are held in 2019.
While the future of a new political formation appears uncertain, the present offers immense opportunities for the replication of the Bihar-like grand alliance at the national level. It is this possibility which will bring together leaders of different political parties at a common platform on November 20.
Who's who of Indian politics
Sitting chief ministers Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, Akhilesh Yadav, Oomen Chandy and Tarun Gogoi as well as former chief ministers Sheila Dikshit and Bhupinder Singh Hooda are expected to be in Patna to be at the swearing-in ceremony. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, National Congress Party leaders Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel and Tariq Anwar and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s M. Stalin, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh as well as Communist Party of India (Marxist) chief Sitaram Yechury are also slated to join the celebrations.
Union ministers M Venkaiah Naidu and Rajiv Pratap Rudy will therefore find themselves in a minority at the event which has been billed as a show of strength by non-BJP parties.
Nitish Kumar had also invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi but he will not be going to Patna because of his “prior engagements”. In any case, it would have been difficult and embarrassing for Modi to be present at a programme where his bête noire would be the feted and fawned upon while the prime minister would be forced to play second fiddle to him.
Congress concerns
Although it is still early days yet, Nitish Kumar’s projection as a future prime ministerial candidate is not being viewed enthusiastically by the Congress which would like to see its vice-president Rahul Gandhi in that role. While there are underlying misgivings in the party that the Nehru-Gandhi scion could be reduced to play a supporting role in the proposed multi-starrer, it is also a matter of concern that the Congress will not be in a position to call the shots. The grand old party would then be an adjunct to the regional parties, cheering them from the margins.
“What should be a BJP vs Congress battle would become a BJP vs a National Front and the Congress would, at best, be a member of such a formation,” remarked a senior Congress office-bearer.
While large sections of the Congress are still exulting over its success in Bihar, there are others who believe these celebrations are premature as this electoral victory has further underlined that the grand old party needs the support of crutches in the guise of regional allies. As a pan-Indian party, the Congress should be the lead player of any future alliance, these leaders maintain, as they bemoan the demise of the grand old party’s prime status in the Indian polity.
However, Rahul Gandhi’s supporters are convinced that the Congress will play a pivotal role in bringing together anti-BJP parties just as it did in the case of Janata Dal(U) leader Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav who were threatening to go their separate ways at one stage. While Rahul Gandhi’s chief objective is to contain the BJP and he appears more than willing to join others in this
mission, there are sections in the party who believe the leadership should focus on strengthening and reviving the Congress so that it regains its position as the country’s main political force.
A long way to go
While the Congress is in the throes of this debate, the formation of a possible broad national anti-BJP front has a long way to go. State-level rivalries will make it difficult for regional parties to join hands. It is difficult to imagine that Uttar Pradesh’s political rivals – the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party – could come together on a common platform. Similarly, the Left parties and the Trinamool Congress can never be in the same political formation as they battle each other in West Bengal. It’s the same story in Tamil Nadu where the DMK and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam are the chief political rivals.
But then politics is after all the art of the possible. Who would have imagined that friends-turned-foes – Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav – could again become friends? But they did come together when they realised that their political survival was at stake. Political pragmatism had propelled the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party to enter into an alliance both in Maharashtra and at the Centre even though NCP chief Sharad Pawar had walked out of the Congress on the issue of its president Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origins.
Watch this space.
