Restructuring the national Opposition to make it vibrant
The contours of a vibrant opposition axis emerged last week at a meeting called by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. Powerful regional parties made a strong pitch for a seat at the high table to jointly make decisions instead of a UPA-like structure where Sonia had the final word by virtue of being its chairperson. Conveying it obliquely, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee sought the formation of a core group to decide the alliance’s agitational programmes.
She also pushed for making the grouping bigger and better than the UPA by opening the membership door to all like-minded parties. The indication was towards drawing biggies like the AAP, TRS, YSRCP, and BJD, all of which have defeated the BJP, but did not get Sonia’s invite for the meeting. Among the UP parties that were invited, the BSP and the SP failed to make it, with the latter’s head, Akhilesh Yadav, excusing himself citing a previous engagement in the state’s interior, though he was very much in Lucknow.
To build the new alliance—let’s call it UPA-plus—the Congress would have to make sacrifices to provide room for others in the leadership matrix. Members of the core group could include Mamata, Sharad Pawar (NCP), Lalu Yadav or son Tejashwi (RJD) and M K Stalin (DMK), some of whom aspire to be PM candidates. It could also mean lesser clout for a few parties that are at present punching above their weight within the opposition. Mamata’s decision to prune the 11-point charter of demands of the united opposition to five, reportedly came after she learnt the joint statement was drafted by CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury.
With the 19 parties that attended the meeting deciding to hold joint agitations against the BJP across the country between September 20 and 30, it will be interesting to see how the unity plays out on the ground. For example, would the Trinamool share the dais with the Left and the Congress in Bengal? In Punjab, would the Congress want to be seen along with the SAD or AAP when state elections are barely six months away? Subsuming individual aspirations for a larger cause is a noble concept, but do the big players with elephantine egos have the magnanimity and vision to make it work?