Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 18: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao took the first step towards building a non-Congress Opposition Front on Wednesday with the maiden meet of his party since it went national.
The newly-renamed Bharat Rashtra Samiti’s meet in Hyderabad’s Khammam town was attended by Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Kerala Chief Minister, CPM’s Pinarayi Vijayan, besides the Uttar Pradesh former chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and CPI’s D Raja.
JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy who has been supporting KCR’s foray into national politics, could not attend the meet due to his ongoing Pancharatna Rath Yatra (statewide tour) in Karnataka. Sharing stage with the four Chief Ministers, Akhilesh Yadav said: “Yesterday the BJP’s meeting (National Executive) concluded. They themselves said that 400 days are left for left. This govt is counting its days. It will not stay after 400 days.”
The BRS meet comes days ahead of the grand finale of the Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, for which it has invited 21 opposition parties including the Samajwadi Party and the CPM. Mr Kejriwal’s AAP, though, is missing from the list of invitees.
All the parties attending Mr Rao’s rally on Wednesday had skipped the Congress yatra. Akhilesh Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal have made their antipathy to the Congress clear. The CPM, though, is in talks with the Congress in Tripura on a seat sharing arrangement for the elections due this year.
Mr Vijayan had made public his dream of a non-Congress, non-BJP front ahead of the 2019 general election. But it had failed to take off, with most regional leaders stopping at extending moral support. There have been questions on whether Mr Rao’s dream front will materialize this time too.
Besides Mr Rao, there have been many contenders for the pole position in the opposition. Arvind Kejriwal has made his national ambitions clear. So has Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whom Mr Rao met in September last year, was categorical in stating that there will be no Third Front. “There is no question of a Third Front. There should be one front that includes the Congress. Then we can trounce the BJP in 2024,” Mr Kumar said at a rally organised by the Indian National Lok Dal, which has a long history of rivalry with the Congress.
No third front has been successful so far without the support of the BJP or the Congress. The government headed by former Prime Minister VP Singh had the support of the BJP. The governments led by his successors — Chandrasekhar, Deve Gowda and IK Gujral — had the support of the Congress.
