A famous dialogue from Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas was tweaked to give it a political flavour in the wake of the highly-anticipated Opposition meeting happening in Patna on Friday, June 23. A poster, with one such dialogue, was put up at the office of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Patna. One-half of the poster read:
"Mamata ne kahan Bangal chod do, Kejriwal ne kaha Dilli chod do, Lalu-Nitish ne kaha Bihar chod do, Akhilesh ne kaha Uttar Pradesh chod do, Stalin ne kaha Tamil Nadu chod do, Vo din door nahi ja sab mil kar kahenge, Congressi (Rahul) rajneeti hi chod do (Mamata Banerjee said leave Bengal, Arvind Kejriwal said leave Delhi, Lalu Yadav-Nitish Kumar said leave Bihar, Akhilesh Yadav said leave Uttar Pradesh, MK Stalin said leave Tamil Nadu, That day is not far, when they together will say, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, leave politics)"
Posters outside BJP office in Patna portray Rahul Gandhi as 'Devdas of real life' (Credit: ANI)The Opposition rift and AAP's conditions
The BJP may be right in figuring out the many problems with the idea of 'Opposition unity.' Leaders of more than 15 Opposition parties met on Friday to chalk out a roadmap for the formation of an anti-BJP front for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. However, experts say that photo ops and meetings are not enough and the Opposition has a long way to go before forging a 'third front' to take on the BJP in the general elections.
Many party leaders who attended the Opposition meeting in Patna — including Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Arvind Kejriwal, Trinamool Congress' (TMC) Mamata Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav of Samajwadi Party (SP) — have time and again spoken out on their rift with the Congress. India's own grand old party hopes to lead mission Opposition unity.
After the Opposition meeting, the AAP released a statement, placing a condition before the Congress. It said, "Until the Congress publicly denounces the Black Ordinance and declares that all 31 of its RS MPs will oppose the ordinance in the Rajya Sabha, it will be difficult for AAP to participate in future meetings of like-minded parties where the Congress is a participant."
Except for the Indian National Congress, all other 11 parties, which have representation in the Rajya Sabha, have clearly expressed their stand against the Black Ordinance (Centres's ordinance on Delhi govt) and announced that they would oppose it in the Rajya Sabha: Aam Aadmi… pic.twitter.com/2MgKxoGY27
— ANI (@ANI) June 23, 2023
Just a day ahead of the key meeting, the AAP gave an ultimatum to the Congress to clear their stand on the Centre's ordinance on the administrative powers in Delhi. Following this, an AAP spokesperson accused the Congress of colluding with the BJP. "Rahul Gandhi and the BJP have reached an agreement and he is standing with the BJP on this illegal ordinance," AAP's Priyanka Kakkar said.
What other Opposition leaders said after the Patna meet
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said the Opposition will meet again in July in Shimla to prepare an agenda on how to move ahead together while working in our "respective states to fight the BJP in the 2024 elections."
"Kharge will chair that meeting early next month," JD(U) leader and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar said, adding that "in that meeting, almost everything will be finalised."
Kumar added, "It was a good meeting where it was decided to fight the elections together. Another meeting will be held soon." National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah said 17 parties from Kashmir to Kanyakumari have come together not for power, but for principles..."
VIDEO | "Very positive talks were held today and we have decided to contest (Lok Sabha polls) together. Another meeting of all the (opposition) parties will be held to decide the next course of action. In that meeting, almost everything will be finalised. Mallikarjun Kharge will… pic.twitter.com/uU4KuJErsL
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 23, 2023
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, "We are united, we will fight unitedly... The history started from here. The BJP wants that history is changed. And we want history should be saved from Bihar. Our objective is to speak against this fascist government ..."
Is Opposition unity possible?
The BJP's poster (mentioned in the beginning of this story) takes a jibe at the Congress for being denied an alliance with many regional parties in the past. These regional parties include the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh, the CPIM in West Bengal and the AAP in Delhi and Punjab. Political experts believe the ideological differences between the parties stop them from uniting ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Earlier, Prashant Kishor, political strategist-cum-politician, opined that the BJP won the votes of four of 10 people and the Opposition has not been successful in bringing "the other six together." Kishor said the Opposition is not divided on the basis of parties or leaders but on the basis of ideology. He emphasised the importance of the "coming together of ideologies and ideas" to build a "counter-narrative."
Rahul Gandhi, who was in Patna for the meeting, spoke about the ideological differences between Congress and the BJP, but not about that between the Congress and other Opposition parties. He said, "There is a battle of ideologies going on in India. On one hand, is Congress' 'Bharat Jodo' ideology, on the other hand, is BJP-RSS' 'Bharat Todo' ideology."
Meanwhile, Amitabh Tiwari, a political strategist and commentator, explained another reason why unity is not possible. He said while Congress will be able to transfer vote share to these groups of parties, "that will not be reciprocated as these (regional) parties don't have vote share." This seems to have "weakened the Congress".
For example, over 80 percent of AAP voters in Punjab used to vote for Congress earlier. Also, the AAP has a vote share to speak of only in Punjab and Delhi, not in other states.
"Trust deficit" is another root cause of the "impossible" unity. There's only one party which cannot form an alliance with the BJP — the Congress. "But, from the TMC to TRS, YSRCP, BJD, JMM, Akali Dal, JD(U), RLD, J&K National Congress, to PDP, most of the parties have been part of the NDA earlier," Tiwari said. He went on to say the Congress' internal factionalism was another hurdle in the process.
Lack of a PM face
The BJP hit out at the Opposition over the lack of a prime ministerial face. BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad took a jibe at the Opposition meet in a unique way, Refering to "dulha" as the PM contender of the Opposition party, Prasad said, "Nitish Kumar 2024 ke liye baaraat saja rahe hai Patna mai, baaraat me to dulha bhi hota hai, par is baaraat ka dulha kon hai? (Nitish Kumar is decorating the wedding procession for the 2024 elections in Patna, but who is the groom (PM contender). Everyone is calling themself a PM contender)."
Responding to this, Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said, "Ravi Shankar dulha ki chinta na kare.. .Hamara dulha taiyar hai, aap baaraat ke swagat ki tayari kro... (Please don't worry about our groom ... our groom is ready, please prepate to welcome the wedding march...) This Opposition meeting is to unitedly raise voices to save the democracy."
#WATCH | Delhi: "Ravi Shankar dulha ki chinta na kare...Hamara dulha taiyar hai, aap baaraat ke swagat ki tayari kro...This opposition meeting is to unitedly raise voices to save the democracy," says Congress leader Pramod Tiwari https://t.co/U7DpwjNyMa pic.twitter.com/j6W6f1o6N8
— ANI (@ANI) June 23, 2023
Meanwhile, BJP MP Sushil Modi said, "Everyone is busy making others accept their conditions...After their victory in the Karnataka elections, Congress has started seeing regional parties as its palanquin carriers. But regional parties are not ready to do that for the Congress. They are not ready to let Congress enter their states... This is not the first time that they are holding a meeting..."
While the Opposition seems determined to come up with a solid solution to "defeat the BJP," now all eyes are on the next key meeting to be held in July in Shimla to prepare an agenda for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)
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