By Nitya Chakraborty
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s comments on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led presently by Sonia Gandhi, after her meeting with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar in Mumbai on Wednesday has created a big row in the political circles, especially among the opposition parties who are opposed to the BJP and are looking for a strong alternative to fight Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
The Trinamool supremo made two important observations. First, there is nothing like UPA and second, the regional parties unitedly are strong enough to take on the BJP. Significantly, Mamata did not rule out the inclusion of Congress in the anti-BJP front; what she wanted was that the Congress could not be the automatic leader of that front.
If one assesses clinically what Pawar said after his discussions with Mamata, one thing becomes clear: both want immediate rejuvenation of the anti-BJP front, including the active participation of other regional parties, which are now outside the opposition combination led by the Congress. Further, both the leaders are aggrieved that Congress is not doing enough to take on the BJP and its organizational problems are hitting the prospects of intensifying the battle against the BJP for the Lok Sabha elections.
On both these counts, the two leaders are talking sense. But while veteran Sharad Pawar is speaking in more diplomatic terms, Mamata with her street fighting background is more blunt and giving the impression as if she is fighting for capturing the opposition leadership from Rahul Gandhi. Mamata has to change her style and she should persuade her MPs not to constantly harp on the Trinamool supremo as the only challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in terms of leading the anti-BJP opposition.
Let us look at the ground reality. The UPA, for all practical purposes, is not functioning. The RJD has distanced itself from the Congress; NCP is jittery. There is no meeting of the UPA and there is no coordination committee operating. In the conclave of the opposition parties hosted by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and held with much fanfare on August 20 this year, Mamata was very active. It was proposed that a core committee would be set up and the meeting adopted a big 11 point action programme of the parties for implementation in the last part of September. Little follow up was done as the Congress Party high command was firefighting a major organizational crisis in the states. The opposition lost a golden opportunity of stepping up mass actions due to the Congress inertia.
But simultaneously, the political reality is that Congress is the major national party fighting the BJP in majority of the states and no anti-BJP opposition front is possible without a proper role for Congress in it. Pawar is reconciled to this fact and Mamata will have to agree to Pawar if she is dead serious in defeating the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha poll. There is churning among the regional parties in the South. Right now, TRS has finally allied with the opposition and this is the opportunity to persuade Jagan Mohan Reddy also to take a position against BJP in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Mamata is right when she says that the regional parties will be the major force in defeating BJP if she can persuade the parties of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to take a firm position in favour of the anti-BJP front. She can act as the anchor of the regional parties, including BJD in Odisha and the regional parties in the North East. This advantage Rahul Gandhi will not get as Congress has to fight the ruling parties in AP and Telangana as also Odisha while Mamata’s Trinamool is not there. Mamata’s importance as the bridge between the regional ruling parties, which are still out of the purview of the opposition front now, and the Congress to fight the BJP, has to be recognized.
That way, the best course for the opposition will be to revamp the opposition alliance by giving it a collective leadership of Sharad Pawar, Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee and bring more allies with big focus on the Lok Sabha elections.It will be a win-win situation for the opposition but Sharad Pawar has to do his best to make it work. He is the most experienced politician in the present lot of opposition leaders and he is the person who can bring together all anti-BJP parties including the Left parties under one umbrella. The sole objective should be to remove Narendra Modi from power in 2024 elections.
Despite many hiccups in recent months, Congress has started organizing itself. In state assembly elections, Trinamool is contesting in Goa against the Congress, where their respective strengths will be tested in the assembly elections. In Uttar Pradesh, Congress is the second opposition party after Samajwadi Party to take on the ruling BJP. If there is no alliance between SP and Congress, BJP may gain in some marginal seats, but SP is giving a strong fight and the assembly election results will determine the position of the two parties so that they can ally in 2024 Lok Sabha elections based on their tested strength in the 2022 assembly elections..
The two left parties CPI and the CPI(M), for obvious reasons are a bit allergic to Mamata, but they are participating in all programmes of the opposition. The Left leaders have good equation with both Sharad and Rahul and their active participation in the rejuvenated opposition alliance, can be of big help in imparting a pro-people perspective to the common minimum programme. Apart, the CPI(ML) Liberation group led by Dipankar Bhattacharya can be brought under the purview of the opposition alliance. Dipankar has emerged as one of the most effective ideologues in the recent period who understands the need for programme based snit-BJP front of all secular and democratic forces. The CPI(ML) is present in Bihar assembly in big numbers.
The moot issue is to ensure that the non-BJP votes are not divided so that the saffron party gets no additional advantage of any split in such votes. With this objective in mind, if all the non-BJP opposition parties decide their course of action, that will be the most effective formula in defeating BJP. That is the call which all the opposition parties, including Congress has to pay heed to and Sharad Pawar, Rahul and Mamata have a historic responsibility to ensure its success. (IPA Service)
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