A luncheon hosted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi for leaders of Opposition parties on Friday was originally meant to finalise their common candidate for the presidential election in July. But it was turned into a show of unity with leaders and representatives of 17 parties sending out an unequivocal message to the Modi government – on the day it was celebrating three years in office – that the Opposition is alive and kicking.
The meeting was significant as it brought together political arch-rivals – the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party from Uttar Pradesh and the Trinamool Congress and the Left parties from West Bengal – on the same platform.
The line-up of leaders was impressive – West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah among others. Although Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has persistently spoken about the need for greater Opposition unity, was not present, his party, the Janata Dal (United), was represented by senior leader Sharad Yadav.
Pushed into a corner by a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party, the Opposition leaders put aside their rivalries and said that they would coordinate their activities both inside and outside Parliament to highlight the Modi government’s failures and to work towards the formation of a joint secular democratic front in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Opposition parties will next showcase their combined strength on June 3, when they converge in Chennai for Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam patriarch M Karunanidhi’s 94th birthday celebrations.
On his part, Lalu Prasad invited all the Opposition leaders to participate in a public rally his party will be organising in Patna this August. Mamata Banerjee suggested that they hold joint meetings across the country in the coming months to send out a message that the Opposition is not intimidated by the BJP’s growing clout.
The luncheon meeting was also a throwback to 2004 when Sonia Gandhi had reached out to like-minded parties to build a secular alliance. The move had led to the formation of the United Progressive Alliance, which won two successive Lok Sabha polls in 2004 and 2009.
So, will Friday’s meeting mark the beginning of the emergence of a similar coalition? Opposition leaders struck a cautious note publicly, but privately maintained that this show of strength will not be limited to the presidential election and will be given concrete shape over the next two years.
Long way to go
A beginning may have been made, but the Opposition parties have a long way to go before they can present themselves as a cohesive unit with a credible prime ministerial candidate who can match up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Not only will they be required to put aside their state-level rivalries, they will have to ensure that the proposed front is not perceived as a grouping whose leaders have come together with the sole purpose of taking on the BJP in general and Modi in particular. Instead of indulging in anti-Modi rhetoric, the Opposition leaders will have to unveil their programme of action and convince the electorate that their model of governance is distinct from and better than the present one.
They have to realise that they are dealing with a master communicator and strategist in the prime minister, who can use these unity moves to project himself as a victim hounded by a group of “corrupt” Opposition leaders (many of them are embroiled in graft cases). As a BJP leader pointed out, “It will not be very different from the story of Indira Gandhi, who had decimated the Opposition with the famous line ‘Woh kehte hain Indira hatao, main kehti hoon garibi hatao.’” Yhey say get rid of Indira, I say get rid of poverty.
The coming months will see hectic political activity in the Opposition camp but it will not go far if these activities are confined to joint meetings. The Opposition leaders will have to hit the streets to convey their message at the grassroots level and match the BJP’s well-oiled organisational machinery. Clearly, the Opposition has its task cut out.
Presidential poll strategy
As for the presidential election, the Opposition parties changed strategy and decided to throw the ball back into the government’s court on Friday. A formal statement put out by the parties maintained that it is for the government to reach out to the Opposition to forge a consensus on an acceptable presidential candidate, failing which they would decide on their nominee. Opposition leaders underlined that the candidate must uphold the Constitution and protect the country’s secular fabric.
“The normal practice is for the ruling party to build a consensus for the posts of president and vice-president but if there is no consensus candidate, we will put up a candidate who will uphold the Constitution,” said senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.
The Opposition changed its stance after Nitish Kumar and Mamata Banerjee advised the others that they should not jump the gun in naming a presidential candidate as it would provide Modi with an opportunity to accuse them of acting unilaterally before he could broach the subject with them. In this case, a senior Opposition leader said they have now decided to put the onus of forging a consensus on the government. If Modi fails to do so, the Opposition will then have a valid reason to force a contest in the presidential election.