TMC, SP in Favour of Loose Opposition Arrangement, Maintain Equidistance from BJP, Congress

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Mar 17: In a bid to thwart the BJP’s attempt to condemn the entire opposition by projecting the former Congress president Rahul Gandhi as the leader of the joint front and smearing his image, a section of the opposition party leaders are learnt to have decided to keep equidistance from both the BJP and the Congress and maintain a loose alliance between all the regional parties.

The opposition leaders maintained that neither they should create a third front, which indirectly would provide advantage to the BJP in fighting three-cornered contests, nor should they allow the Congress to play the role of the opposition “big boss” which too would go to the ruling party’s favour by projecting the 2024 Parliamentary elections as a contest between Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi. With Gandhi’s current stock among the general public considered to be at a very low level, the opposition fight against the BJP would fail to take off in any significant manner.

Keeping this in view, three key opposition parties in the centre have agreed to keep both the Congress and the BJP at an arm’s length, indicating they will follow a policy of treating the two parties equally.

This was decided after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav met Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata on Friday with the two leaders agreeing to “work unitedly to fight the BJP.” The Congress however has no role to play in this new front, with Yadav asserting that the other parties could do as they pleased. Ms Banerjee will also meet Naveen Patnaik, the Chief Minister of Odisha who heads the Biju Janata Dal, next week.

The strategy is aimed at countering the BJP’s attempt to portray Congress MP Rahul Gandhi as a key leader of a grouping of opposition parties. The BJP has been trying to get Mr Gandhi to apologise after he alleged opposition leaders’ microphones are muted in India’s parliament during a speech in London recently. Other opposition parties now suspect the BJP has been targeting them using Mr Gandhi.

“Rahul Gandhi made comments abroad and BJP will not let parliament function till he apologises. This means they don’t want parliament to function by using the Congress. The BJP wants Rahul Gandhi to be the face (of opposition) so that it helps the BJP. There is no need to decide on a prime ministerial face (for 2024 election),” Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said. Mr Bandyopadhyay said it’s a fallacy to think the Congress is the “big boss” of the opposition and the Congress also must realise it.

“Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will meet Naveen Patnaik on March 23. We will discuss this (plan to maintain equidistance from BJP and Congress) with other opposition parties. We are not saying it is a third front, but regional parties have the strength to take on the BJP,” Bandyopadhyay said.

Akhilesh Yadav has confirmed they want to maintain equidistance from both the Congress and the BJP. “In Bengal, we are with Mamata Didi. Right now, our stand is we want to maintain equidistance from both the BJP and the Congress,” Yadav told reporters in Kolkata.

“Regional parties are competent enough to decide their roles. The Congress has to decide its role. Nobody should take any step which might have any adverse impact (on fighting the BJP),” he said. As he put it, the issue at hand was ‘removing’ the BJP, and not who will be in the front. “Both the parties would also maintain distance from the Congress,” senior SP leader Kiranmoy Nanda added.

“Topic is not who will be in front, topic is that BJP – which is destroying the country – should be removed…This position (PM) is big we all will sit together and discuss it later. We are aiming to get 80 on 80 in UP, we are with didi (Mamata Banerjee) to defeat BJP,” the SP chief said.

“Those who avail the ‘BJP vaccine’ are not bothered by CBI, ED or I-T,” he said, referring to former opposition party leaders against whom cases by central investigation agencies were dropped after they joined the BJP.

Mr Yadav’s comment also alluded to several opposition party leaders being allegedly hounded by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate, most recently Aam Aadmi Party’s Manish Sisodia and Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Lalu Yadav and his family.