Bengaluru, July 17 : The biggest reason for Opposition parties deciding to sit together to forge a grand alliance in the run up to 2024 Lok Sabha election for two days in Bengaluru city is the victory of the Congress in Karnataka that gave the grand old party a mojo due to Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra.
But the biggest hurdle these parties face to forge a grand alliance is how much Sonia Gandhi-led Congress party concedes to them. Will the grand old party be generous in giving away more seats and take less to achieve unity? And if it does happen, the regional Congress party kshatrapas will take the concession lying down as it would affect their political existence in their states.
So, the unity of the Opposition ahead of Lok Sabha election depends on how the Congress party addresses these challenges. The biggest challenge for Congress lies in states where the presence of regional parties is very much strong.
In Andhra Pradesh, the parties of YSRCP headed by Jagan Mohan Reddy and Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP are vying to get into the NDA fold. Similar stories in the media are cropping up in Telangana with BRS coming close to the BJP.
In Kerala, Congress and Pinarayi Vijayan’s CPI(M) are inimical enemies, but in West Bengal, both parties have been jointly fighting Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress party.
In Punjab and Delhi, the Congress has been hostile to Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP over the Delhi ordinance issue, before the belated support given to the latter over the central government’s ordinance appropriating to itself the power to appoint bureaucrats in the Union Territory.
A clear picture on this issue will only emerge during or after the Mahagathbandhan meeting in Bengaluru.
In Uttar Pradesh, Opposition unity is an illusion with Samajwadi Party severing its ties with the Congress in the last assembly election, and BJP whisking away smaller parties from the SP fold.
On the flipside, Opposition unity looks positive in states where the Congress is not a major player. The grand old party may concede in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Bihar. In some states it is the lone contender against the BJP, and these states – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh – are going for assembly elections in November.
Political pundits will be closely following the attendance and absence of top opposition leaders participating in Mahagathbandhan meeting in Bengaluru, and make their political commentary in coming days accordingly.
