13 Oppn leaders urge PM for free vaccines
NEW DELHI: Leaders of 13 Opposition parties on Sunday urged the Centre to launch a free mass vaccination drive across the country in view of the unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases.
In a joint statement, they also called upon the Centre to ensure uninterrupted oxygen supply to all hospitals and health centres as they manage the staggering patient loads in view of the rising cases.
The signatories include Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee.
“In times of the uncontrollable surge of the pandemic across our country, we call upon the Central government to focus all attention in ensuring the uninterrupted flow of Oxygen supplies to all hospitals and health centres across the country,” they said in a joint statement.
“We call upon the Central government to immediately
states is expected to have national implications.
The cynosure of the elections was the high-stakes, acrimonious contest between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP in West Bengal that had dominated headlines, drawing room conversations and political discourse.
In a victory that had incumbent chief minister Mamata Banerjee imprinted all over it, the TMC won 213 of the 292 seats, way over the victory mark of 147, leaving the BJP trailing behind in 78 seats. It was a long way from the three seats in the last elections for the party.
The campaign by the BJP -emboldened by its win of 18 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the state -- was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, and party chief JP Nadda. The party’s campaign rested on the plank of extending central welfare schemes to the state, bringing in industrialisation and jobs, and polarisation and “appeasement”, based on its allegation that the government had tilted towards minorities in a bid to consolidate the Hindu vote.
The TMC campaign rested on Banerjee’s image as a daughter of the state and Bengali sub-nationalism, opposition to “outsiders” which is how the party sought to portray the BJP, the state’s own welfare schemes, and Muslim support while still seeking to win over Hindu votes and dispel allegations of appeasement.
Though the TMC seemed to have successfully ridden the BJP challenge, it was a bitter sweet moment for Banerjee herself after she lost Nandigram to her protégé-turned-rival Suvendhu Adhikari of the BJP by 1,200 votes.
Coming out briefly to address her followers in the evening, she was businesslike and firm. “Covid is our first priority,” she said.
“’Khela hobe’ (game on) did happen, and we did win. The BJP kept going on and on about double-engine sarkar, while I assured you all that I will score a double century. This is Bangla’s win... this is Bengal’s win... this is your win. This win has saved Bengal, it has saved the culture and tradition of Bengal,” Banerjee said, soon after conceding defeat in Nandigram.
The alliance of the Congress and Left parties failed to open account in the bitterly fought elections.
The TMC improved its 2016 election tally by four seats; it won 209 seats in 2016. The party also improved its vote share to 48.2% against the BJP’s 37.8%.
“The TMC won because of Mamata Banerjee. It seems people have chosen Didi. We will introspect what went wrong, whether it was organisational issues, lack of face, insider-outsider debate,” BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said, adding that he was shocked to see party MPs Babul Supriyo and Locket Chatterjee losing their seats.
The BJP, however, had a reason to smile in Assam where the its NDA won 79 seats in the 126member assembly, ahead of the Congress-led Grand Alliance’s 45 seats. BJP candidates won in 57 seats, while its ally Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) bagged 11 and the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) eight seats. The Congress on its own won 30 seats.
In Assam, elections were being held in the wake of the agitation around the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the challenges associated with the National Register of Citizens (NRC). While the grand alliance of the Opposition — Mahajot as it is called in the state, which includes the Congress, Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front, and smaller sub regional forces —banked on anti-incumbency and issues of Assamese identity being undermined by CAA, the BJP banked on its welfare schemes as well as its own narrative of preserving Assamese identity by portraying the opposition, especially AIUDF, as sympathetic to “illegal immigrants” in what was seen as an attempt to polarise the electorate.
Down south in Kerala, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) scripted history after it retained power in the state, the first time in four decades that the same grouping could form government for the second consecutive time. The two main constituents of the LDF, the CPI(M) and the CPI, together won 97 seats, well above the halfway mark of 71 seats in the 140-member assembly. “I thank the people of Kerala for reposing faith in an unprecedented manner in the way that the previous LDF government tackled all the challenges that the people have faced and also the pandemic scourge. The government gave a Kerala model to the world on how to handle the pandemic,” CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said.
The opposition Congressheaded United Democratic Front (UDF) won 42 segments and the NDA bagged only one seat.
The Congress said it accepts people’s verdict with humility. “It was least expected. We will go through factors that led to our defeat and take corrective steps. We still stick to some of charges we raised against the government,” said Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala.
For the Congress, which inducted many fresh faces and women candidates, it is a big setback. Though party leader Rahul Gandhi, an MP from the state, and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra campaigned vigorously, they failed to control the left surge.
In neighboring Tamil Nadu, DMK’s MK Stalin will be sworn in as the chief minister after his party won a 146 seats in an alliance with the Congress, even as outgoing CM Edapaddi Palaniswami put up a tough fight for the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).
Stalin led DMK comfortably past the majority mark of 118 in the 234 assembly in Tamil Nadu to form the government. The AIADMK (in alliance with the BJP) performed better than analysts and pollsters expected by winning 87 seats despite being in power consecutively for 10 years.
Both the Dravidian parties went into the election without their stalwarts, J Jayalalithaa for the AIADMK and M Karunanidhi for the DMK. The DMK relied on anti-incumbency, the opposition to BJP on the grounds that it is culturally insensitive towards Tamil aspirations, a strong organisation, its wider alliance, and MK Stalin’s image. The AIADMK relied on Palinaswami’s image as someone who has delivered despite having got the position after intra-party factional intrigues, social engineering, and the support provided by BJP as an ally.
Tamil Nadu was also the one bright spot for the Congress. In the rest of the states, it was a story of more losses underscoring its electoral insignificance.
The Congress said it has “lost” elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry and West Bengal but has not “lost its morale or resolve” to continue to be people’s voice in these tough times. “The Congress Party will definitely study the results and all the reasons diligently and we are committed to correct our mistakes and do appropriate course correction,” said Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.