By Rahil Nora Chopra
The
big push that the Congress victory in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and
Chhattisgarh was supposed to provide to opposition unity has not happened,
thanks to an ill-conceived move by DMK leader M K Stalin to unilaterally
propose Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate of the united
opposition. The proposal, announced in Chennai on the occasion of the unveiling
of the statue of DMK patriarch Karunanidhi brought forth prompt responses by
all major parties, saying that there was no such move. In fact, the declaration,
which came like a bolt from the blue, prompted major unity proponents like
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, BSP leader Mayawati, SP chief Akhilesh
Yadav and others to skip the proposed unity show at new Madhya Pradesh chief
minister Kamal Nath’s swearing in ceremony. The left leaders were also
conspicuously absent. Rahul Gandhi himself has given the impression that he is
not game yet for such an announcement. The opposition unity efforts seem to
have taken a beating, with the leading UP parties moving ahead with an alliance
among BSP, SP and RLD to the exclusion of Congress for the 2019 Lok Sabha
elections in the state, although they have not officially confirmed the news.
This stems from the realisation that Congress has nothing much to contribute to
consolidate the anti-BJP vote in UP as the party is not a force to reckon with
in the state. In any case, Mayawati is known to have favoured very few seats to
be given to Congress even if the party was part of the alliance. With Akhilesh
Yadav deciding to toe Mayawati’s line, even if it means giving up a few claims,
the unity of the major UP opposition parties seems to be a foregone conclusion.
And that is no good news for Congress.
MODI WAS NO LONGER
CAMPAIGN FACE
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had
sensed that BJP was not in a winning position even before the results were
announced. So, he did not want to take the blame for the possible defeat, which
is why he refrained from an all-out campaign in the assembly election. The
number of election rallies address by him in the latest round of assembly
elections was much less compared to what he had done in Gujarat and Karnataka.
Even the election posters this time were dominated by respective chief
ministers and other state leaders unlike in the past when Modi and Amit Shah
were the star attractions. In fact, Modi conceded defeat in Madhya Pradesh on
Twitter even before the official results were not announced.
BJP BENGAL MARCH
HITS ROAD BLOCK
The BJP rath yatra in West Bengal
has been disrupted due to court’s interference on the plea that it will disturb
communal harmony. BJP was organising these rath yatras to drum up support for
its in the 42 Lok Sabha seats. All the three yatras were to be addressed by BJP
president Amit Shah and one or two by Modi. Although the state leadership has a
target of 25 to 26 seats, this sounds like a tough call, especially in view of
the problems in organising the yatras. The party approached the Kolkata High
Court but was unable to get a suitable order. Now the BJP central leadership is
said to be planning a new strategy for West Bengal to achieve the target. (IPA)
The post Opposition Unity Efforts Lack Steam appeared first on Newspack by India Press Agency.
