Why Congress may not join Mamata Banerjee-led united Opposition against BJP
On March 28, when Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee came calling at 10, Janpath, she caught UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi by surprise with her offer. The Bengal CM asked the Congress to join the "people’s front of India" - comprising all like-minded "secular", regional parties - to take on the BJP. Naturally, this was an invitation the UPA chairperson wasn’t prepared for. Confused, she said she would convey the message to AICC chief Rahul Gandhi.
Such a proposal leaves very little space and scope for the Congress to call the shots in states where regional parties are either in the number one position, or are the principal challenger to the BJP and the NDA. Given the situation, where political space is shrinking for the Congress, one state after another, the party will have no reason to claim a level-playing field, not ot mention the question of having a field day in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress fears that such terms and conditions will not only marginalise the party, but will strip it of its status and importance to just a fringe element, which can be tagged on or dropped off as an appendage.
Obviously, it was hard to digest. And Sonia didn't even risk such a proposition. The offer came and it was politely returned with a typically evasive will-think-it-later. Letting the Congress cobble up a front is a strict no-no among some parties, such as Trinamool Congress, Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Telugu Desam Party and Shiv Sena, which believe that they would be in a position to dictate by winning a sizeable number of MPs on their own.
However, quite a large number of political parties are soft on the Congress, prominent among them being the RJD, the SP and the NCP and the National Conference. They are trying to reason out with Banerjee that a front minus the Congress is not viable. The Congress and its UPA partners being in the political arena as a separate entity will only lead to a further split in the anti-incumbency and anti-BJP votes.
So, the Congress has to stay in the Opposition platform to take the one-on-one fight, which Banerjee is canvassing, to a macro perspective. Benerjee was in Delhi, picking up friends for her front. She kept her doors ajar. Anyone nursing a grudge against the BJP was welcome, even those who were in the party and feeling restive.
From Kanimozhi to Misa Bharti, throughout her stay in the Capital in Parliament lobby, visitors kept Banerjee busy. In return, she embraced them, touched NCP leader Sharad Pawar’s feet, but gave Sonia Gandhi a miss on the first day of her outing and scouting in Parliament. Though she and her party also clarified that it was unintentional, what came out of the meeting wasn’t encouraging enough to suggest otherwise. By the time Banerjee had sent her emissary to Sonia, seeking an appointment, she was gone.
After reaching New Delhi, Banerjee was not only meeting like-minded friends, she, in fact, made it quite clear who all figure in her friend list. In her meeting with the three disgruntled BJP leaders - Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Shatrughan Sinha - Banerjee was actually complaining as to how Rahul Gandhi bungled all the chances in Tripura by not understanding the urgency to form a grand alliance of all the parties in the Opposition along with the tribal parties. The conditions Banerjee, as the chief architect of the front in-the-making, had held out for the Congress is ignominious. Obviously, neither mother nor son will agree, laying down their arms and allowing someone else to brandish the weapons.
The front has looked fractured from the beginning. There are differences of opinions as to who should be in and who should be out. Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav’s aunt-nephew equation doesn’t look that good: the aunt having already made it public that there’s going to be some hard bargain over seat-sharing in the 2019 elections. Fissures are already growing and the one common foe, around whom the friends have forged ties, is having a good laugh.
For all the big talk about anti-Modi and anti-BJP front, the line between friends and foes appears thin and blurred so far.
(Courtesy of Mail Today)