NEW DELHI: Author, former diplomat and now national vice-president of All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC), Pavan K Varma thinks the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will see a Modi vs Mamata battle. He says his party is trying to emerge as the ‘real Congress’ and not necassarily attacking the grand old party. Excerpts from an interview.
There are talks that TMC is eyeing places where Congress already has a footprint and this will not help the unity in Opposition. Your view?
TMC feels it is important to have a strong Opposition in a vibrant democracy. Congress could have led the Opposition. But our assessment is Congress with its present leadership is unable to face that challenge. In the last 10 years, it has lost 90 elections. We are faced with two choices — continue to wait for Congress to reinvent itself or reinvent the Opposition space. In a democracy, no party or individual has an ordained right to lead or monopolise the Opposition space. Every party has the right to try to create a more effective Opposition. TMC has resolved to do that and it proposes to become a party with a pan-India footprint. It has authorised its chairperson to make structural changes that help us emerge as the principal Opposition party.
How do you look at the 2024 LS elections? Does the Opposition have a chance?
In a democracy, you can discount any possibility. In one word, 2024 will be Modi vs Mamata. We have state-specific plans and organisational vigour to execute them. Sometimes, we may even ally with whatever is left of Congress. We will have a policy of strategic flexibility and clarity of goals. With all this, along with allies inclduing NCP, DMK, Jagaan Reddy and others, we will see how to mount the challenge. TMC has reinvented itself as a pan-India party. BJP’s strengths are polarisation, hyper nationalism and what can be called Hindutava welfarism. But polarisation doesn’t mean 80% of Hindus vote for BJP.
Why is TMC going after Congress?
TMC is a breakaway faction of the original Congress party. Our aim is making TMC the real Congress to become the principal Ppposition in it the country. Our assessment is that large segments of the Congress are tired of being in the state of drift. They will move to an organisation which represents more robustly the ideologies of Congress. We believe Congress, or something like the Congress, is essential in India. We are not fighting the Congress. We are recreating Congress. We are not the only force in the Opposition. We have a natural set of allies who have kept BJP at bay across the country. It could be DMK in TN or Jagan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh. There are many allies, who want a robust and pan-India alliance against BJP. The fight between Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi is a walkover for BJP. We are not weakening Congress. It is a migration of leaders from one party to another to strengthen the Opposition.