Rahul joins unity parlays at Kharge’s home; Nitish, Pawar vie for paramount role.
The bid for anti-BJP (read: antipodal to Narendra Modi) unity gained traction past week with apparent adhesive friction accompanying the effort. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar flew in from Patna, met ailing RJD chief Lalu Yadav and escorted his Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav to the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. The presence of Rahul Gandhi in this meeting (and in the meeting with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar at the same venue the next day) was a departure from the past. This was the first time that “Rahul sahib”(as Kharge addressed him while greeting Nitish-ji and Tejashwi-ji) participated in a unity confabulation. The shift of Congress power centre from Sonia Gandhi’s 10 Janpath to Kharge’s 10 Rajaji Marg provided cosmetic ambience to the confabulation. During the just concluded Budget Session of Parliament (where financial issues were rarely discussed) Kharge, who also wears the hat of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, had managed to put together a motley group of some 20 “likeminded parties” who protested wearing black clothes and marched 200 meters in unison from Parliament House to Vijay Chowk. He also held discussions with leaders of regional parties. His stature as a winner of nine elections and long political experience spanning half a century gives him a heft which in the past 25 years his predecessor Congress presidents did not enjoy.
Nitish and Pawar have held unity parlays many times over, in New Delhi and in their respective regional turfs. Pawar is the fulcrum of Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra. Nitish switched horses midstream from past poll ally BJP to his bête noire of yore, RJD (he had split with Lalu to float his own party)—he is referred to as “Paltu Ram” for his sudden flip flops. In recent days he had been silent while many opposition leaders spoke up against Rahul Gandhi’s expulsion from Lok Sabha. He made no acerbic comments on Union Budget either. A seasoned Congress leader from Bihar, who is wary of Nitish’s unpredictable ways, asked this writer in confidence: is Kharge-ji outsourcing Congress poll alliances to this man?
Sharad Pawar, on the other hand, has the reputation of being an obligator. When Rahul’s jibes at Savarkar caused fissures in MVA he did not mince his words and told Sonia Gandhi to advise her son to be more tactful. On Adani matter and the JPC demand he has been circumspect. Unlike Nitish, being a former Congressman who was once contender for the party’s top slot, he enjoys respect in the GOP. As like NCP, Trinamool, YSRCP, BRS and a host of splinter parties are from the Congress stable, Pawar’s outreach is wider. He has been consistent on the question of unity being inclusive, not sans Congress, unlike many other leaders of India’s opposition pantheon.
After meeting Kharge and Rahul, Nitish drove to AAP chief and his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal to continue his effort. Next day, while Pawar met Kharge-Rahul, Nitish confabulated with CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury and CPI’s D. Raja. Nitish plans to reach out to six parties which are inimical to Congress: Trinamool, AAP, BRS, Samajwadi Party, YSRCP and Biju Janata Dal (the last two are not part of opposition confabulations; they are perceived closer to BJP). Considering that Trinamool and SP chiefs, Mamata Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav, recently said in Kolkata that they prefer a pan-opposition grouping sans Congress and that Mamata has declared that the only alliance she prefers is with “the people”, Nitish has a slippery, uphill way ahead.
Apart from antipathy towards Congress of regional parties, many of whom are offshoots of the GOP, AAP’s propensity to grow by infiltrating on Congress space will be a roadblock which Nitish will have to negotiate. AAP’s recently acquired status as national party came riding on attrition of Congress votes in Delhi, Punjab, Goa and Gujarat (which formed the basis of the Election Commission’s verdict). Since 2014, wherever AAP has gone, Congress vote base has dwindled. In Gujarat, BJP gained 4% votes while AAP took away 12.96% from Congress. Congress accuses Trinamool and AAP of being “B” Team of BJP. Mamata says BJP is trying to increase Rahul’s “TRP”.
CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury too has talked of a nationwide non-Congress alliance (while his party recently tied up with Congress in Tripura, West Bengal). Pointing out to past alliances at the Centre, he hinted that a post-poll tie-up is better than attempting a pre-poll grouping. The concept of United Front was enunciated by a Bulgarian socialist, Georgi Dimitrov in the 1940s. Later, CPI ideologue Mohit Sen in the 1970s postulated the concept of “unity and struggle”, which perhaps fine-tuned Dimitrov’s hypothesis.
Permutation combinations can be many. After 1977 and 1989, the conundrum of opposition unity has been complex. As 2024 poll is a year away, it is axiomatic that a bid be made for a change of regime. The Nitish, Pawar exercises are a corollary to that.