OPPOSITION IN DISARRAY FOR PRESIDENTIAL POLL

The non-NDA parties were never realistically in the race for the coveted position of President of India in succession to Pranab Mukherjee but the much-touted conclave of Opposition leaders on Thursday was destined to be doomed the moment Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar pledged his party the Janata Dal (United)’s support to BJP nominee Ram Nath Kovind. Several other fence-sitters followed suit, the most notable of them being the Biju Janata Dal and both factions of the AIADMK (one led by chief minister Palaniswami and the other by O. Panneerselvam). The Shiv Sena, though in coalition in Maharashtra with the BJP, flexed its muscles by threatening to go with the Opposition but caved in subsequently. Predictably, the tally of those favouring Kovind will go well beyond the required numbers.

Significantly, Congress heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi was abroad like ever so often when the Opposition conclave was held in New Delhi, and that set many tongues wagging, much to mother Sonia Gandhi’s embarrassment. The charge that Rahul is a part-time politician and therefore is ill-suited to lead the Congress in succession to Sonia Gandhi is beginning to stick and Congressmen are talking about it in hushed tones. That the Opposition parties, many of them splinter groups but 17 in all, chose to select former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar as their challenger was not because they entertained any hope of winning the presidential election but to tell the people that they too are for Dalits since Kovind is a Dalit. In a limited way, the message was directed at women too who are a vote bank in any election.

The opposition disunity reflected in the presidential election would have a dampening effect on the fortunes of the opposition parties in the 2019 general elections too. It appears unlikely that the alliance in Bihar between the Janata Dal (United) and Lalu Prasad’s RJD and the Congress and would continue in these circumstances for much longer. In Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK factions have little option but to continue to support the BJP since DMK is aligned to the opposition grouping. Mayawati has been a BJP-baiter and the Modi government would have to work on her hard to have any chance of peace with her in 2019. Naveen Patnaik also would need to be wooed assiduously. But all in all, the BJP is on a strong wicket even in 2019 if the presidential polls are any indication.