Opposition Conclave Decide to Fight Lok Sabha Elections “Together,” but AAP Unhappy with Congress

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, June 23: Even as the 16 opposition parties who met in Patna on Friday in their first move to forge an united front, said they all have decided to fight the 2024 Parliamentary elections “together” against the ruling BJP, the Aam Aadmi Party dropped a bombshell saying it would not attend any future meetings unless the Congress publicly denounce the Delhi ordinance and agree to vote against it in the Rajya Sabha.

The top leaders of the opposition parties at the invitation of the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar assembled in Patna and deliberated on Friday to chalk out a roadmap for the formation of an anti-BJP front for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

After the meeting concluded, Nitish Kumar said, “It was a good meeting where it has been decided to fight the elections together.” The Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge announced that the next Opposition meet would be held in Shimla “to prepare an agenda on how to move ahead together while working in our respective states to fight BJP in 2024.”

The West Bengal CM and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee said the Opposition parties “are united” and that they will “fight unitedly.” “Our objective is to speak against this fascist government,” she added. The CPI’s D Raja said, “We have to reclaim the Republic. We are of the strong view that BJP has to be defeated.”

Altogether 16 parties opposed to the BJP took part in the meeting. Though in the current Lok Sabha the combined strength of these parties account for less than 200 of the 543 seats, their leaders are hopeful of together turning the tables on the saffron party which enjoys a brute majority with a 300 plus tally.

In a bid to thwart any opposition unity move, the BJP launched a scathing attack against the Patna meet with the union home minister Amit Shah calling it a “mere photo session” and the union women’s welfare minister Smiriti Irani terming it as Congress admission of its weaknesses vis-avis the strong leadership of the prime minister Narendra Modi.  Taking a jibe at the meeting, Amit Shah said, “today a photo session is underway in Patna. They (the Opposition) want to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi and NDA. I want to tell them that PM Modi will form his government in the 2024 Lok Sabha Polls with more than 300 seats.”

Kumar told a joint press conference after the four-hour long meeting that all the parties have agreed to contest elections together, but one more meeting will be held next month in Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla to finalise details. The AAP chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK head MK Stalin were absent from the joint press conference and Kumar claimed they left because they had to rush to their flights back.

The AAP dropping the bombshell to dissociate itself from future meetings followed sharp exchanges between Congress and the AAP during the meeting over the Delhi ordinance. Sources said the Kejriwal sought the grand old party’s stand on the Ordinance issue, while Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge raised the AAP Chief Spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar’s allegation that the Congress was not taking a stand because of a deal with the BJP.  Ms Kakkar said minutes ahead of the meeting that they have come to know from reliable sources that “there is a consensus between Congress and BJP” which is why the Congress was not opposing the ordinance.

Congress has repeatedly said the big meeting was not the occasion for such issues, and that they decide on such issues ahead of Parliament sessions. “Opposing it or proposing it does not happen outside, it happens in Parliament. Before Parliament begins, all parties decide what issues they have to work on together. They know it, and even their leaders come to our all-party meetings. I don’t know why is there so much publicity about it outside,” Kharge had said on reaching Patna.

“Details including details of seat sharing and party-wise split will be finalised in the Shimla meeting,” Nitish Kumar said at the joint press conference.

Kharge said the next meeting would tentatively be held on July 10 or 12, which will deliberate the strategy for all states “to prepare an agenda on how to move ahead together while working in our respective states to fight BJP in 2024.”

“We have to fight the elections together in 2024. We have decided to throw out the BJP and are confident of forming the next government,” Kharge said.

Rahul Gandhi raised the issue of alleged attack on democratic institutions. “It is a fight of ideologies. We may have some differences but have decided to work together with flexibility to protect our ideology. This is a process, and we will keep it going,” he said.

Mamata Banerjee, too, asserted that the parties that attended would fight as one. “What starts from Patna becomes a jan andolan (public movement),” Ms Banerjee said, alluding to the iconic JP movement during the Emergency. She further said meetings in Delhi didn’t yield results.

“Three things have been resolved — We are united, we will fight unitedly, and our fight shouldn’t be branded as the Opposition’s fight but rather a fight against BJP’s dictatorship and their black laws and fight their political vendetta,” Ms Banerjee said.

“Raj Bhavan has become an alternative government. They organised Foundation Day for our state without consulting us. If we oppose them, ED and CBI is used against us. They send lawyers in court and implicate us in some case or the other, but they don’t talk about unemployment, common people, or the destruction of economy, atrocities against Dalit, or violence against women. They don’t give money for Awas (housing) or roads and recruit people in universities as per their own whims and fancies,” she added, and claimed that the country won’t see another election if the BJP returns to power.

“Let our blood flow, if need be. But we will protect our people…BJP wants history to be changed, but history will be saved from Bihar,” Mamata Banerjee said.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, who was among more than 30 leaders to attend the Opposition meeting in Patna, said, “17 parties from Kashmir to Kanyakumari have come together not for power, but for principles.”

NCP chief Sharad Pawar said, “just like JP movement, our united front will get blessings of the public.” PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said things that have happened in Jammu and Kashmir are now happening in the rest of India. “The way people are being treated, especially the minorities, we don’t want Gandhi’s Nation to turn into Godse’s,” she said.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray said despite ideological differences, the parties have vowed to defend the country against anyone who tries to attack the democratic values. “I truly believe that when the start is good, then good things will happen,” he said.

The Bharat Rashtra Samiti of Telangana chief minister KC Rao stayed away from the opposition conclave. The Telangana Minister of Municipal Administration and Urban Development and BRS leader K.T. Rama Rao said, “to believe that it is either BJP or Congress that has to lead is something that we don’t agree with.” “There has to be an alternate ideology,” the BRS leader added.