Questions remain on future of opposition unity after Prez poll
What are the perceived gains or losses that can be seen in the efforts of Opposition parties to put up a united contest to elect the new President and Vice President? Are the Opposition parties any closer to the goal of putting up a joint fight against the BJP in the 2018 general elections?
STORY SO FAR
Opposition unity efforts have come under strain on two occasions in the recent past. First, Janata Dal (United) leader and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar broke ranks with the Opposition parties in pledging support for nowelected President Kovind. Second, despite the boycott call of the Congress, a clutch of Opposition leaders including those of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), JD (U) and the JD(S) attended the midnight session of Parliament to mark the launch of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The Bihar model of Opposition unity – which has been sought to be replicated at the national level – has been under considerable stress in past weeks. With state chief minister Nitish Kumar’s alliance partner and Rashtriya Janara Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad and family members coming under the scanner of the investigating agencies, speculations have been afloat on the possible collapse of the JD(U)-RJD-Congress government. There have been talks to the effect that Kumar could dump the RJD and switch sides to the BJP in order to prevent the fall of the Bihar government.
THE BACKGROUND
The electoral stream rolling at the hands of the Narendra Modi-powered BJP in the 2014 General Elections was bad enough; leaders pursuing conventional “secular parties” are today confronting threats of being decimated from India’s political landscape because of the aggressive ideological, social and political strategies unleashed by the ruling combine. As the Uttar Pradesh elections have shown, the top BJP leadership has been able to affect a fundamental shift in the matrix of electoral politics. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and other investigating agencies have renewed the drive against Prasad and family members, while other Opposition leaders including SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati have continued to remain under the scanner. “Unite or Perish” is the message that is loud and clear for satraps of regional parties, said Professor C P Bhambri, eminent political scientist.
FUTURE SCENARIO
Despite the common threat perceptions (from the BJP), Opposition parties remain torn by conflicting interests at the state-level. Traditional rivals such as the BSP and SP have displayed some signs of thawing, while the Left and the TMC in West Bengal or the AIADMK and the DMK in Tamil Nadu have remained at loggerheads. The Congress – the lead Opposition party – has failed so far to bring regional secular groupings under a common platform. Given the weakened position of the Congress, several claimants to the leadership role in the proposed secular formation have emerged.