Entire Opposition v/s Operation Kamala : AAP's new bomb

Q: Opposition Unity.  Is it a joke? 

Ans: No. They are serious!

They are united in opposition but devided in their thoughts and action. Except the fight between Aam Aadmi party and Congress party they all wanted to find a common ground to fight against Modi.Bomb exploded  at Delhi after the recently :

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)  has thrown a bomb on efforts on opposition unity. If the Congress fails to protest the Delhi Ordinance in Parliament, AAP will not join the Congress-led opposition. Additionally, the party has put forward a new condition stating that the Congress should not nominate Rahul Gandhi as their leader for a third time and he should not be the leadership face of United opposition.  After weeks of planning and back-room negotiations, over two dozen leaders of over a dozen political parties "from Kanyakumari to Kashmir", as they said, flew to Patna for a much-hyped opposition unity meet called by JDU chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar which is moving towards another failure.They talked for around four hours to come to the conclusion, but ended up in postponing the next meeting to next mont in Shimla. They were not able to decide on a coordinator. But they agreed to continue talking. Even that conclusion doesn't seem unanimous. Conditions apply.

Agenda and Confusions galore:

As the obvious contradictions revealed themselves, some pragmatic participants drew reassurance for themselves and their core social constituency by saying that it is no less an achievement that we all came together to meet and fight against BJP in next Lok Sabha elections. It seems it ended up like a group photo opportunity. Patna was apparently too hot and humid to iron out the wrinkles and to agree enough to even join hands and raise them in unison for the customary photo-op.The stated agenda - one nation, one candidate from the opposition grouping in each parliamentary constituency against the ruling BJP - was left for discussions at some time later.T he participants were given three weeks to recoup and ponder over way forward. The cooler climes of hilly Shimla were chosen as the next setting for a meeting. Since Himachal Pradesh is ruled by the Congress, the party will be the host there. But the signs so far are not very good.

Why uder Congress leadership?

Arvind Kejriwal, in all likelihood, will try and make headlines by announcing fresh conditions to attend the meet. Given the harsh words from Kejriwal and co. against the Congress on the Delhi Ordinance row, the Congress leadership will be under pressure from its own leaders, should the party extend an invite to AAP. He is also questioning where is the necessity  for asking Congress to take leadership? AAP and Congress cannot go hand in hand as they are rivals in Delhi and Punjab.

Modi Hatao, Desh Bachao :

The motto for the coalition, 'Modi Hatao Desh Bachao' is a old slogan of the Opposition parties but the question of how is perhaps going to take some time, at least till the results of the next round of elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram, in for months. The BJP and the Congress will go head-to-head in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. Prime Ministerial aspirant, Telangana Chief Minister and BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao's popularity will be tested, and depending on the outcome, his stance will be interesting to see.

Wait and watch the drama!

It's a different matter though that in 2018 the BJP had lost all three states, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, to the Congress but the Modi factor weaved its magic in the parliamentary elections in these states and delivered superb numbers for the BJP from there. But irrespective of that, the political narratives would be set according to the outcome, as has been happening after the Karnataka results.

Attendance: Those present 

It was fine for the leaders in Patna to boast of their 'Kashmir to Kanyakumari' attendance. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin went to Patna but left before the press conference that was meant to showcase the number of attendees. Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah from Jammu and Kashmir were there but Mamata Banerjee chose to leave even as Omar Abdullah was speaking.From the southern states, beyond and around Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, there was no one. From Andhra Pradesh, neither Jagan Mohan Reddy of the ruling YSRCP nor Chandrababu Naidu of the opposition TDP were in the meeting. From Telangana, K Chandrashekhar Rao was not invited. While CPM party chief Sitaram Yechury was present at the meeting discussing opposition unity, the CPM-led Kerala government cracked down on Congress state unit president K Sudhakaran over a financial cheating case.

Absent: May not join this group 

From Kerala, no CPM leader joined the meet. Other important regional leaders like Naveen Patnaik in Odisha, Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh, Akali Dal in Punjab or regional players in Haryana were either ignored or were not interested. Jayant Chaudhary of RLD, Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party ally in Western UP (Congress ally in last parliamentary election), gave it a miss.

Why Kejriwal is angry?

Arvind Kejriwal and his entourage left the meeting in a huff after he failed to make Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge yield to his coercive tactic on the Delhi Ordinance issue. They boycotted the combined press conference. It was also an embarrassment for Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav who, on behalf of the Congress, twice visited Kejriwal's newly controversial official residence to convince him to join the proposed opposition coalition. Even by leaving the meeting halfway, Kejriwal, who had zero Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 parliamentary elections, ensured that he consumed much airtime. That won't please the others, particularly the Congress.

Is UPA chapter closed?

Wasn't an opposition coalition already in place? The United Progressive Alliance chaired by Sonia Gandhi? If the proposed opposition coalition is given some other name, then the Congress will lose its primacy as the fulcrum of opposition unity. From what the Trinamool, AAP and some other parties indicated, they will not accept the Congress in the pole position of the new coalition. First, like the Congress, all other parties that gathered there ( except Left) are dynastic parties. Second, these parties have grown in shape and size at the cost of the Congress, not the BJP. Even then, a magnanimous Congress agreed to piggyback on these parties at its own cost. 

Final verdict:

It will be BJP versus all other 15 parties in 2024 elections. Final you. Caan say that these opposition parties have resolved to stay united.

(Dr Mysi Patil is the State Correspondent)