The Opposition is divided on how it should unite against the BJP ahead of the 2019 general elections

Stunned by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s growing footprint in the country, a demoralised Opposition is in the midst of a heated debate on how best it can take on the saffron outfit.

The dilemma facing the Opposition parties is: should they form and unite under a national platform with the specific objective of stalling the BJP in the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha polls or should they instead opt for a tacit understanding?

Coming together

Many political watchers feel that failure of the Opposition to unite against the BJP government on various issues, the weakening of the Congress since its defeat in the 2014 general elections and the consequently, absence of a strong alternative to the saffron party has aided the BJP’s rise.

After the latest round of Assembly elections in February and March, the BJP is now in power in 15 states. Ever since the party’s outstanding performance this year, where it it swept two of five states that went to polls – Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand – and also formed the government in another two that saw a hung assembly, Goa and Manipur, there have been calls for the Opposition to come together to create a formidable front against the saffron party.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar set the ball rolling earlier this month when he urged the Congress and the Left parties to take the lead in forming a mahagathbandhan or grand alliance of the kind that thwarted the BJP’s victory in Bihar in 2015. During a visit to the national capital, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee, also spoke in favour of Opposition unity in Monday. “I’ll be too happy if we all work together,” she told media persons. The Left parties have also come to the same conclusion after a series of meetings.

Amid the growing clamour for a common platform, Congress President Sonia Gandhi held a high-level meeting with senior leaders of her party on Friday to discuss the way forward, while Vice-President Rahul Gandhi met Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yehcury and and CPI’s D Raja over the last week on the need need to form a broad coalition of secular and democratic forces against the BJP.

As a follow-up, Rajya Sabha Opposition leader and Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad hosted Opposition parties in his Parliament House office on Monday, where it was decided that parties would taken a united stand on the concerns over the tampering of Electronic Voting Machines.

After results of the Assembly elections to five states were announced in March, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati and Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal alleged that EVMs had been tampered in some constituencies. This has sparked a debate on the vulnerability of these machines. On Monday, a delegation of Opposition parties submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission requested that until doubts over the possibility of EVM-tampering are cleared, elections should be conducted under the old paper ballot system.

The medium

Although a beginning of sorts has been made in forging Opposition unity, there is still no clarity on the path ahead.

Parties increasingly feel that they need to set aside their differences and come together to put up a fight against the BJP but there are are apprehensions that such a move could end up strengthening the saffron outfit, particularly Prime Minister Modi.

The proposed front, it is feared, may give Modi an opportunity to accuse the Opposition of naked opportunism aimed at cornering him, given the ideological differences and incompatibilities among many of these parties. Even in the recent Uttar Pradesh polls, a large section of voters perceived the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance as a way to gang-up against Modi. This was among the various reasons voters cited for shunning this alliance.

Even the details of such a front would be hard to work out. The Congress is currently the only pan-Indian national party and logically, it would lead the united Opposition platform. But the party’s face, Rahul Gandhi, lacks credibility. The Nehru-Gandhi scion has a long way to go before he is accepted by the people as a serious contender for the prime ministerial contender. Any attempt to project him as the leader of the grand alliance is bound to boomerang and work to the BJP’s advantage.

The other option before the Opposition parties is to have a tactical understanding to work together, instead of a formal alliance. However, this arrangement also has its pitfalls. Regional forces like the Janata Dal (United), the Trinamool Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Left parties and the DMK have pockets of strength but lack national presence and are, therefore, not viewed as a serious challenge to the BJP for the general elections. Also, the Opposition will have to necessarily project a prime ministerial candidate who can take on Modi.

The message

The other issue confronting the BJP’s political rivals is about its political messaging.

There is a growing realisation in the Congress that Rahul Gandhi’s personalised attacks against Modi have proved to be counter-productive. This is perhaps why the Opposition did not level any direct charges against the BJP while raising concerns over EVM tampering in the recent Uttar Pradesh polls. Instead, it urged the Election Commission to address their concerns in the interest of upholding the integrity of the electoral process.

Many in the Opposition now feel that instead of targetting Modi or the BJP for its apparent communal agenda, they should now put the government in the dock on people’s issues like the agrarian crisis in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and several other states and the slow job creation while also unveiling its own agenda. “The Opposition should not be all about BJP or Modi-bashing…we should tell the people what we have to offer to them,” said a former Congress minister.