Oppn grouping for LS polls battles internal challenges

The 19 Opposition parties, which hope to collectively take on Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the next national election, have to settle thorny internal issues before looking at the larger political goals.

To start with, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s demand to set up a core committee, a smaller panel of Opposition leaders, has not found support from all quarters. A section, particularly those in the Left, has argued that it would be difficult to pick and choose 4-5 leaders from a group of 19 parties.

Banerjee’s logic was that this working group can interact frequently and prepare the groundwork before the top leadership of these 19 parties meets to take decisions. But at least three other leaders saw this proposal of an executive panel as “very difficult” to implement. “Who would be included and who would be kept out? This might create a further divide,” said a senior leader who is an active member of the Opposition group.

With leadership issues still a potential sore point between the parties, some leaders have already told Sonia Gandhi to continue to chair this group. “I have requested Sonia ji to continue holding such opposition meetings,” Sitaram Yechury said.

Yechury’s appeal assumes significance as it is widely anticipated that Gandhi, who played a lead role after the 2004 general elections to bring non-nda parties under the umbrella of the United Progressive Alliance, is set to step down as Congress president in the next organizational election.

“Sonia Gandhi is the only leader who commands the respect of each and every opposition party. She has the stature and ability to bring so many divergent political outfits under one umbrella,” said a leader from another regional party, who agreed to Yechury’s proposal. The next meeting of the opposition group is due in October after their 10 day-long protest programme ends on September 30.

In the first meeting on August 20, Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked India’s top opposition leaders to rise above individual compulsions “in the interest of the nation” and start planning “systematically” for the “ultimate goal is the 2024 Lok Sabha elections”.

Sonia acknowledged that it would be a “challenge” to keep the group together. She said, “together we can and must rise to it because there is simply no alternative to working cohesively together.”

“We all have our compulsions, but clearly, a time has come when the interests of our nation demand that we rise above them,” said Gandhi, ahead of a daunting task of bringing various regional outfits with conflicting interests to form a grand coalition to take on a formidable Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the next polls.