Failed bid to get BJD on board began Oppn slide
NEW DELHI: Opposition parties failed to get their act together to win the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman’s election in a a highly anticipated face-off with the ruling NDA on Thursday, and in the process squandered an opportunity to win a few additional votes in favour of their common candidate. For the past month, all calculations by the anti-nda camp had indicated that it would need the support of Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal to win the election. Yet, Nationalist Congress Party was asked to reach out to Panaik at the last moment. By the time he did, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar had already spoken to Patnaik and secured the BJD’S support for NDA candidate Harivansh, who emerged victorious.
Other things went wrong, too. Opposition leaders were scheduled to hold a second meeting at 6 pm on Tuesday. But at 3.30 pm, Pawar met senior opposition leaders to say that neither Patnaik nor the Shiv Sena, a Bharatiya Janata Party ally, would support an opposition candidate Under the circumstances, Pawar was not keen on his party’s Vandana Chavan contesting the election as the Opposition nominee. Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party were reluctant to throw their hat in the ring.
Some leaders suggested that a candidate of the Telugu Desam Party, which pulled out of the NDA earlier this year, contest the post. “TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu had already communicated his willingness and CM Ramesh, who defeated Harivansh in the Public Accounts Committee election a day ago, was ready,” a senior opposition leader said on condition of anonymity. The Congress didn’t warm up to the idea of a TDP candidate, according to two senior leaders. Had the TDP fielded a candidate, at least the Aam Admi Party would have voted in his favour , said another senior strategist. A floor manager from a regional party added, “A day ago, Ramesh was supported by the Opposition camp in the Public Accounts Committee election and he won. The same formula could have been repeated here.”
To make matters worse, Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP said publicly that Congress president Rahul Gandhi must talk to the Delhi CM if the party wanted its support for the Congress nominee and joint opposition candidate BK Hariprasad. No opposition leader found Gandhi at fault for not responding to Kejriwal’s demand. Gandhi couldn’t have been expected to accept such a public demand, said one regional party leader. “Other senior Congress leaders did try to speak to Kejriwal. But it didn’t help,” this person said. Some opposition leaders suggested that TMC chief Mamata Banerjee speak to Patnaik, Kejriwal and Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao. But when Trinamool’s Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’brien communicated the suggestion to Banerjee, she refused to get involved. On Thursday, Hariprasad didn’t sound dejected hours after the poll result was out. “We might have lost the battle but we have won the war. The Opposition stood united while the election exposed the hidden agenda of the BJD. Also remember that no major UPA (United Progressive Alliance) partners ditched us,” he told HT.