In cleared Oppn space, parties, leaders move in; first stop president election

At a meeting of Opposition leaders convened Sonia Gandhi on August 20 last year, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Miner Mamata Banerjee did some plain-speaking. To take on the BJP, she said, all parties — even those not aligned with the Congress — should be brought together. She went on to name the likes of Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, K Chandrashekar Rao and even Nitish Kumar, who shares power with the BJP in Bihar.
Since then, Banerjee has pressed ahead with expanding her party nationally, with Goa polls in particular, met Opposition leaders several times, and declared that “there is no UPA now”. Lately, other Opposition leaders appear to be warming up to the idea, with meetings in several state capitals underlining the declining hold of the Congress on the anti-BJP space.

Last week, K Chandrashekar Rao, the Telangana CM, was in Mumbai to meet his Maharashtra counterpart and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, plus NCP chief Sharad Pawar. Both, incidentally, are partners with the Congress in the Maharashtra government. Just prior to his Mumbai visit, KCR got a call from Banerjee. In December, KCR met Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin, and in January, top Left leaders such as Sitaram Yechury, D Raja and Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan.
Banerjee also called up Stalin around the same time, and suggested a meeting of Opposition CMs. In December, she held a meeting with Pawar and the Sena’s Aaditya Thackeray.

In Delhi, Nitish, the Bihar CM and JD(U) chief, had a surprise dinner meeting with political strateg Prashant Kishor. Both Nitish and Kishor have dabbled with parties across the political spectrum, and with each other. Once a senior JD(U) leader, Kishor now wields considerable clout in the TMC.
While both the Sena and NCP have issued statements saying the Congress would be very much a part of any Opposition grouping, the talk of a churning has only gained ground with the latest meetings and calls.

Was Kishor’s dinner with Nitish just a courtesy meeting? Or was it at the behest of the many Opposition leaders the political strateg has worked with? Or was it a political power play Nitish to keep the BJP on its toes, given the strain between them? Is KCR now working with Banerjee? What was the message to the Sena, given its reluctance towards an anti-BJP front without the Congress? Would the next stop for Banerjee or the other Opposition CMs be their Andhra counterpart Jagan Mohan Reddy?
And was the first item on the agenda of these parties the election to the post of President and Vice-President later this year?
TMC sources said that apart from the Congress’s inability to give a fight to the BJP, another reason it could not take the lead in forging Opposition unity was that many of the leaders on the non-BJP side have past baggage with the Congress. If Jagan split from it to float his own party, KCR exited the UPA in 2006 over the Telangana demand, and Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP is the Congress’s direct political opponent in Delhi.
“Somebody has to reach out to all these leaders if the Opposition has to come together to take on the BJP,” a TMC leader pointed out.
KCR is not a new face in national politics. As part of the UPA I government, he held the Labour Minry. His Telangana Rashtra Samithi was the first among the UPA parties to leave the coalition. In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he had talked about formation of a federal front, though the idea had remained a non-starter at the time.
While the BJP’s aggressive push in Telangana is one reason for KCR’s counter-moves, party leaders say he has an eye on the big picture. The TRS hopes that the anti-BJP stridency would not just convince other Opposition leaders that it is not soft on the BJP, but also the Muslims at home. The TRS hopes that this in turn will pitch the Assembly elections due next year as a direct fight between the BJP and it, and rally the state’s 13 per cent odd Muslim vote behind it.

Like KCR, Banerjee is not new to Delhi, and has long nursed national ambitions. Apart from working the phones with leaders, the TMC chief a few days ago travelled to Uttar Pradesh and addressed a press conference with SP leader Akhilesh Yadav, another leader who is not on good terms with the Congress now.
The Congress, which still sees itself as the main cog in the Opposition wheel, is closely watching the developments. Several leaders admitted that the results of the ongoing Assembly elections will be its last chance to reverse the tide.
“We have to win at least two states. We know what some of our friends in the Opposition are doing…but we can’t do much… Unless we start winning again, what can we do?” a senior leader said.
Another leader pointed out that the churning in the Opposition camp was set to increase irrespective of the outcome. “If the BJP does well… some of these regional parties will show more urgency in stitching together an anti-BJP coalition. And we may not be in a position to claim leadership. If it is the other way round, then there will be cheer in the Opposition camp and, of course, there will be talk about the need for everyone to come together.”
Its status now more of an observer in national politics, the CPM’s angst was reflected in an editorial in its mouthpiece People’s Democracy. It noted that some CMs in Opposition-ruled states were discussing the need for a united stand to defend federalism and to counter the “onslaught” of the Narendra Modi government on Centre-state relations, and that the need for this could not be overstated.
But, the editorial added, “… such a conference of chief miners should focus exclusively on federalism and states’ rights. Any attempt to utilise such a forum to cobble up political alliances will undermine the importance of the issue of federalism and states’ rights, and end up being counter-productive.”

Naming specifically Banerjee, the CPM mouthpiece said, “The way West Bengal chief miner Mamata Banerjee is seeking to conflate the proposed meeting of chief miners with the forging of an alternative alliance of regional parties, will only detract from the serious business of protecting the federal principle,” it said.
Sources said that some CPM leaders have urged the Congress president to take the lead and convene a meeting of Opposition leaders after the Assembly poll results on March 10, to preempt Banerjee. Sonia is said to be receptive to the idea. However, would Banerjee and KCR respond in kind? Much will depend on how March 10 looks like.