NEW DELHI: Seven non-Congress opposition chief ministers and a deputy CM have together formed a group and had three video conferences over the last few weeks to discuss a united fight against the BJP in 2024.
The eight leaders of this group include seven chief ministers – Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), MK Stalin (Tamil Nadu), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), K Chandrashekar Rao (Telangana), Hemant Soren (Jharkhand), Bhagwant Mann (Punjab), Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi) – and Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav. The Congress is part of the ruling alliance in TN, Jharkhand and Bihar.
Sources said the group, called G-8, has invited the Congress to start seat-sharing talks on the condition that the leadership of the united opposition group is left open until after the Lok Sabha elections. Congress is yet to respond to the proposal. But sources said Rahul Gandhi is keen to engage with G-8 leaders. They said a united challenge to the BJP with all opposition parties coming on one platform was the plan Rahul Gandhi had referred to in London recently.
Some of the group’s leaders like KCR, Kejriwal and Mamata oppose breaking bread with the Congress. It is on their insistence that the condition to freeze the leadership issue until after the elections were conveyed to Congress. Two other chief ministers – Naveen Patnaik (Odisha) and Jagan Mohan Reddy (Andhra Pradesh) – have refused to have any pre-poll understanding with the Congress.
Sources said if the Congress does not agree to their condition on leadership, they would go ahead and expand the group by including the remaining opposition CMs and other opposition parties. According to sources, Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday was an attempt by the non-Congress opposition leaders to send a message to the grand old party not to insist on a leadership position in the opposition.
The opposition leaders had not taken kindly to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s remark at an election rally that his party would lead the opposition and form the next government by ousting the BJP.
An opposition leader who is privy to the discussions among the G-8 said that the Congress had failed to take on the BJP in the last two Lok Sabha elections. “It was routed in states where it was in a direct fight with the BJP.” It is time the Congress allowed the regional parties that have successfully halted the BJP’s march in their respective states to take the leadership position, he said.