By G Krishna Mohan Rao*
New Delhi: The opposition parties’ meet, scheduled in Patna next week on June 23, 2023, has already run into rough weather with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Aam Admi Party (AAP) making statements which seem unacceptable and unpalatable for the Congress Party. The grand old party is expected to play a key role at the Patna meet, with Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) supremo, Nitish Kumar, pushing for rag-tag umbrella unity of the opposition parties to face the coming Lok Sabha polls.
Yesterday, the West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Bannerjee made it clear that she would not accept the Congress and the Communist Party of India -Marxist (CPM) coming together in West Bengal. She said that Congress should not expect any help in the Lok Sabha polls in her state as long as it allied with the CPM. At a public meeting, Mamata said “Congress, which has governed many states, is CPM’s biggest ally in Bengal. They are bigger allies of the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party]. And they seek our help in Parliament. We will still do it to oppose the BJP. But remember, in Bengal if you are at home with CPM, do not come to seek our help (in Lok Sabha polls)”.
Both Mamata and senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi are expected to meet next week along with Opposition Chief Ministers and leaders, to work out an anti-BJP alliance ahead of 2024. However, Mamata has made it clear that such an alliance will not work in Bengal in the face of a Congress-CPM pact. The Opposition alliance meeting comes in the backdrop of the ongoing tri-cornered panchayat polls in Bengal, which the Congress and the CPM are contesting in an alliance against the TMC and the BJP.
In the recent assembly by-poll in Bengal, the winner, Bayron Biswas as the Left and Congress alliance candidate and later his defection to the TMC also caused differences in Mamata’s ties with the Congress. It may be recalled, that with regard to the main agenda for the Patna meet, next week, Nitish Kumar had already stated that one of the main aims is to work for a broad alliance of the Opposition to ensure that there will be only one Opposition candidate against the BJP in all states in order avoid the split of the Opposition vote.
In a similar development yesterday, the AAP came up with an offer asking the Congress Party that if it does not contest the Delhi and Punjab elections, then the AAP will also shelve the plan of contesting elections in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Reacting to the offer, the Congress lambasted the AAP and said, “We condemn such remarks coming from AAP before an Opposition unity meeting in Patna on 23rd, next week. The AAP can say whatever they want we do not take it seriously”. The Delhi Congress statement further said, “It was well known that the AAP also made a statement that [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi for PM and Kejriwal for CM. They were supporting the BJP on major issues. The AAP was contesting state elections to extend the benefit to BJP”.
The Delhi Congress chief Anil Choudhary, also pointed out that the AAP was trying to make an entry in the recently held Karnataka assembly polls where the BJP was in a weak position. The AAP received just 0.1 per cent votes in Karnataka polls, which was less than the NOTA option. He further said that the AAP was contesting assembly polls in Uttarakhand, Goa, Gujarat, and Himachal Pradesh and it played the same role to help the BJP indirectly. Now they are planning to do the same in Haryana, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh where the BJP does not look strong.
For quite some time, both the ruling AAP and the Delhi Congress unit were at loggerheads on several issues. In fact, the Delhi unit of the Congress Party has been targeting the AAP over the liquor scam, which is now being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Delhi’s former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia is behind bars in connection with the liquor scam. The Congress said that following their complaint only, Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor took up the matter for enquiry. It recalled that the AAP also backed the BJP when the Centre abrogated Article 370 from Jammu & Kashmir. The Delhi unit of the Congress is also putting pressure on the party’s high command not to back the AAP on the crucial Ordinance related to the appointment of officers in the National capital.
On the other hand, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief, Arvind Kejriwal, seems desperate for the Congress Party’s support on the government’s Ordinance, when it comes to voting in the Rajya Sabha. For the last fortnight, Kejriwal has reached out to all non-BJP political parties for help in blocking the passage of the Ordinance in Rajya Sabha, where the BJP-led NDA does not have a majority. So far, Kejriwal has met and enlisted the support of Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), TMC’s Mamata Bannerjee, K Chandrasekhar Rao of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), Hemant Soren of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Nitish Kumar of the JD-U and the entire support of the Left.
Though Kejriwal has sought time with the Congress Party president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi, sources said that the Congress leadership had conveyed that they would take a final call on the Ordinance matter after holding discussions with state units of Delhi and Punjab. It is said that Nitish Kumar had promised Kejriwal that at the Patna Opposition meet, the issue of the Ordinance would be discussed in detail since it has implications for the federal structure of governance and Centre-State relations.
*Senior journalist
