President poll result hints at waning impact of Opposition

The Bhartiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance(NDA) started out by being just short of the winning mark at 49% or 533,751 votes of the total 1,086,431 votes in the electoral college

The results of the presidential election on Thursday -- NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu won easily, with 64.3% of the votes cast -- confirmed several theories about the state of the Opposition in the country from lack of a common cause to petty competitiveness, although some analysts and even opposition leaders believe the biggest problem was the lack of imagination in picking a candidate.

As the extent of Sinha’s loss became clear, many leaders admitted that choosing a former BJP leader to run against the BJP, was not a very good idea (PTI)

The Bhartiya Janata Party(BJP) led National Democratic Alliance(NDA) started out by being just short of the winning mark at 49% or 533,751 votes of the total 1086431 votes in the electoral college. But instead of making a statement that showed they were ready to challenge the Narendra Modi government in the run up to the general elections in 2024, the opposition got off to a weak start by eventually settling on Sinha, its fourth choice after the first three demurred.

As the extent of Sinha’s loss became clear, many leaders admitted that choosing a former BJP leader to run against the BJP, was not a very good idea. While Murmu seemed a bold choice with the BJP speaking of her modest roots and tribal background, the opposition could only settle on Sinha. This made it easy for parties not part of the unified opposition -- such as the Biju Janata Dal and YSRCP -- to back the NDA candidate Murmu. A more imaginative choice -- a TMC leader said his party had discussed the name of adivasi social activist also from Odisha (Murmu’s state) Tulasi Munda -- may have well made them back the opposition candidate.

The opposition also seemed hobbled by the absence of a clear leader. The Congress Party realizes that it can no longer call the shots and won’t be allowed to lead negotiations. But the absence of one person who can lead discussions results in practical problems. For instance, in this case, the opposition did not have a candidate till two days before the nomination deadline and individual leaders had to take the initiative. ``When someone mentioned (Yashwant) Sinha’s name, we said that he is a TMC member. And then he resigned, and so we went along with it,’’ admitted a senior Left leader.

Finally, even before the Presidential results were announced, the Trinamool Congress opted out of backing the opposition’s joint vice-president candidate, exposing the internal rifts and contradictions in the opposition. Unlike Sinha, who was the TMC’s candidate, Margaret Alva, the opposition’s VP candidate, is not. And the TMC has said it was not consulted before she was named. And even in Sinha’s case, while TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee signed his nomination papers, the party seemed to distance itself from him and he didn’t even travel to West Bengal to campaign ahead of the polls. Weeks before voting, Banerjee stated that she may have considered supporting the NDA’s candidate had she known it was Murmu,a woman and a tribal.

It’s already become clear that the opposition’s candidate Margaret Alva’s prospects in the VP polls are expected to be no better than Sinha’s . If the opposition parties were to think like the BJP, they would have already have started working on their current weaknesses ahead of 2024 polls. Then, as analysts have repeatedly pointed out, their problem is that they can’t.