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Congress likely to pitch themes of Bharat Jodo Yatra for opposition unity
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and general secretary KC Venugopal are in Patna to attend the first meeting of at least 18 parties as part of efforts to unite them
Congress leaders were expected to pitch key themes of the party’s Kashmir to Kanyakumari Bharat Jodo Yatra as possible common causes for a unified opposition at the meeting of non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parties in Patna on Friday. Other parties were likely to identify potential poll planks.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and general secretary KC Venugopal are in Patna to attend the first meeting of at least 18 parties as part of efforts to unite them ahead of the 2024 national polls.
The plan is to forge a national level unity and try to put up common candidates for 400-450 seats to fight against the BJP, which returned to power for a second time with a bigger majority on its own in 2019.
Congress leaders said Kharge was set to emphasise the damage to the social fabric, the sense of fear, prejudice, and bigotry the BJP promotes and the economic scenario with a focus on the loss of employment and livelihood as well as growing inequality.
The Congress is also expected to maintain that the opposition must remain focussed on people’s issues such as price rise, the increase in fuel prices, and on those with resonance on the ground.
The party is expected to cite its strategy of sticking to a local narrative and raising issues of the common people in Karnataka, where it returned to power in May. Party leaders maintained that going local helped them build a stronger narrative against the BJP’s poll pitch centred around the Prime Minister and the Union government.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was also expected to focus on emphasising common people’s issues and highlighting the Union government’s alleged interference in her state’s affairs.
A leader of Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress said she was expected to highlight the non-payment of ₹7500 crore under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as an example of the Union government’s alleged high-handedness.
“Price rise, employment, interference in states, federal issues, people issues are expected to dominate the narrative,” said another leader.
The Left parties are expected to cite issues such as the need to defeat the BJP as well as secure the character of secular democratic India and retain the supremacy of the Constitution.
Some leaders may take up the issue of better coordination during parliament’s monsoon session.
The meeting of 15 parties is among the biggest of the kind in recent years and comes around nine months before the next general elections. HT on Friday reported the conversation is unlikely to be dominated by the contour or regional arrangements and alignments or a so-called common minimum programme.
The Union government’s ordinance on the control of bureaucrats in Delhi was likely to cast a long shadow over proceedings.
HT reported Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who wants unity against the ordinance, may object if the Congress remains non-committal and could short-circuit the prospect of unity even before it emerges.
Many parties have supported Kejriwal. But Congress, Aam Aadmi Party’s arch rival in Delhi and Punjab, has remained non-committal. Kejriwal asked for an appointment but Kharge and Gandhi have not met him. The Congress is unlikely to support Kejriwal.
The meeting was earlier scheduled for June 12 but it was cancelled to ensure that the parties involved sorted out their differences and were willing to make sacrifices and adjustments. No breakthrough was likely at the meeting.
Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha quit Bihar’s ruling alliance days before the meeting. Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who has been one of the key interlocutors for the unity, also decided against attending the meeting.
