With unity elusive in Opposition, the grand old party is left to fight a lone battle.
New Delhi: The winter session of the Parliament beginning from Monday is going to be very important for the Congress, as Rahul Gandhi, who is likely to be the party president in future, will be facing a tough challenge to corner the government with a divided opposition.
The political scenario has undergone a significant change over the last three months after the monsoon session. What was seen before Parliament’s monsoon session was that Rahul Gandhi could not unite the opposition on the issues of price rise and farmers’ problems. Even interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi could not also succeed in bringing together the opposition parties. But now the situation has become tougher for the Congress before the winter session. However, Sonia Gandhi has in a meeting with party leaders prepared a strategy to corner the government. The government has also prepared its strategy to upstage the opposition.
The government has already upset the opposition’s plan by announcing to repeal the three farm laws. The government has its plan ready to give the opposition another setback by passing the bill in Parliament to repeal the farm laws as the session begins. Moreover, the government has also started taking steps to control price rise to counter the opposition attack on this issue. A divided opposition is definitely going to give relief to the government.
The opposition is divided on the issue of leadership, with the other parties trying to isolate the Congress. In a bid to expand its base, the TMC is damaging Congress in different states. With this in view, it will be a challenging task for the grand old party to unite the opposition. Will the opposition accept Rahul Gandhi’s leadership? The opposition has so far been reluctant to accept him as its leader. Rahul Gandhi is not at the same time ready to accept the changed political situation. It is because of his weakness that the other parties are in the dominating role. Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who started her political journey from Congress, is now bent upon damaging the Congress. Though no mass leader has joined TMC, Mamata Banerjee has been successful in giving a political message.
The Modi government wants the opposition to be in such a shape. What is benefiting the BJP is that a weak Congress continues to be in fight with it at the national level. Some Congress leaders’ controversial statements have also helped the BJP politically. With the repeal of the farm laws, the opposition will lose a big political weapon which it wanted to use in all the five state elections. Its impact will be visible in UP and Punjab. Former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh’s new party is becoming a problem for Congress in the state.
Senior leaders such as Manish Tiwary are adding to the Congress’ headache by making controversial statements. It also indicates that the Congress will get setbacks even as election in Punjab draws nearer. In a bid to control dissidents, the Congress has served a show cause notice to Amarinder’s wife Preneet Kaur. But the move may boomerang.
Meanwhile, the multi cornered contest in UP may benefit BJP. SP, AAP and RLD are in alliance. Apart from BSP and AIMIM, now TMC is also planning to fight in UP.
In this way, the Congress stands isolated as even smaller parties are avoiding it. With this in backdrop, the winter session has become quite crucial for the Congress. After this session of Parliament, poll related activities will gain momentum. The Congress is, however, struggling alone.