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Galaxy of opposition leaders to attend Hemant Soren’s swearing-in
Their presence on a common stage gains significance in the context of protests that have taken place against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Sunday’s swearing-in ceremony of Jharkhand’s chief minister-designate Hemant Soren is expected to serve as a show of strength by top leaders of political parties opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at a time when the latter confronts stiff resistance to the amended citizenship law.
Congress leaders Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)’s Sharad Pawar, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her Maharashtra and Delhi counterparts Uddhav Thackeray and Arvind Kejriwal will be in attendance at the ceremony.
All of them have confirmed their attendance as have Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president M.K. Stalin and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, said leaders of Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). Former President of India Pranab Mukherjee will also attend.
JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said Congress chief ministers, Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan, Kamal Nath of Madhya Pradesh and Bhupesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh would also be present at the event besides former CMs Harish Rawat of Uttarakhand and HD Kumaraswamy of Karnataka.
It would be the first such gathering of opposition luminaries since the May 2018 swearing-in of a short-lived Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) government headed by Kumaraswamy that resigned in July this year after a rebellion by some of its lawmakers.
Their presence on a common stage gains significance in the context of protests that have taken place against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the resistance that opposition parties have put up against moves by the Centre to implement them.
“The gathering needs to be seen through the prism of the opposition against the CAA and NRC by most of the non-BJP parties. These parties want to send out the message that a big chunk of the country’s population which these parties represent in different parts of the country are against the BJP, especially when assembly elections in two big states like Bihar and West Bengal are scheduled next,” said LK Kundan, who teaches political science at Ranchi University.
On the invitee list, Jharkhand BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said: “They have won and it is their call. They are free to invite people they want for their moment of victory.”
Bhattacharya said Soren had also invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well. “We thought we would be encouraged if a popular prime minister attends swearing-in of a popular chief minister. However, his office has sent good wishes and informed us that he would not be able to attend in person due to his prior commitments,” he said. Outgoing chief minister and BJP leader Ragubhar Das and his cabinet colleagues have also been invited, he added.
Bhattacharya said Soren had also invited many other leaders such as Janata Dal (United) chief and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and Biju Janata Dal chief and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, but they were yet to confirm their presence.
“We have been part of erstwhile Bihar and we will love to host him (Nitish Kumar) here. We are still to get confirmation from the Bihar chief minister. However, JD (U) leader and vice-chairman of Rajya Sabha, Harivansh has confirmed his presence,” said Bhattacharya.
The JMM, in an alliance with the Congress and the RJD, swept to power in Jharkhand this week by unseating the BJP. The alliance won 47 seats in the 81-member assembly in the five-phase elections that ended on December 20, The BJP won 25 seats.
The alliance has decided to hold the swearing-in ceremony at the Moharabadi Ground, one of the biggest grounds in Ranchi, and has appealed to people from across the state to attend the event. The ground can hold 200,000 people.
