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Ahead of key Opposition meet, some non-BJP parties hint at friction with Congress alliance
On Sunday, AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal started campaign for Rajasthan assembly elections in December by accusing Congress and BJP of “indulging in corruption.”
Lucknow/New Delhi:
Just days before Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is scheduled to anchor a meeting of opposition parties in Patna on June 23, many regional outfits have expressed discomfort over an alliance that includes the Congress, which might hamstring efforts to forge opposition unity ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections.
On Monday, the Samajwadi Party tweeted a poster that quoted national president Akhilesh Yadav as saying: “We hope all those parties which wish to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party will support Samajwadi Party with a big heart.” Although it did not mention any party by name, there was an implied reference to the Congress.
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On Sunday, Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal started his party’s campaign for the Rajasthan assembly elections in December by accusing the Congress and the BJP of “indulging in corruption” in the western state. He accused Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot of copying his schemes from Delhi and trying to project a Rajasthan development model, which he said is nothing but a replica of his Delhi model. The Congress hit back saying the AAP has no future in Rajasthan.
Kejriwal had sought support of the Congress to defeat the Centre’s ordinance on transfer and posting of Delhi government officials in the Rajya Sabha. The Congress is yet to respond to his call.
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi led by Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is also unlikely to attend the June 23 meeting, citing its discomfiture over the presence of the Congress. It has reiterated its stand of maintaining equidistance from the Congress and the BJP. The BRS sees the Congress as its main opponent in Telangana.
In the case of the Samajwadi Party, the fresh reiteration has come days before the Patna meeting.
Yadav, who had confirmed his attendance for the June 23 meeting, has said he will emphasise this winning formula at the opposition meeting. “The joint opposition should support the alliance partner which is strongest in a particular state,” Yadav said. “Whosoever is strongest, fighting against the BJP, and is in a position to defeat the BJP in that particular state should be supported by the joint opposition in that particular state.”
“Let me clarify that the entire opposition is united against the BJP. Let June 23 meeting happen, the picture might get clearer by then,” Samajwadi Party spokesperson Anurag Bhadauria said. “In politics nothing is final. Things change.”
After losing the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when he contested in alliance with the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party, Yadav had said in Saifai that his party now will not engage in any alliance with any big parties in the state as the “experience was bad”.
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Yadav had also allied with the Congress in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. His party lost power in the state in 2017 and in 2019 could win just as many seats as his party had won in 2014, a meagre five out of 80.
The Aam Aadmi Party is also unlikely to forge an alliance with the Congress for any seats in Delhi and Punjab, where it is ruling. Apart from that, AAP leaders said it would also stake claim for Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, where the party bagged 13% vote share compared to 27% for the Congress.
“The AAP says leave Delhi and Punjab, Akhilesh Yadav says leave UP, Mamata Banerjee says leave West Bengal, KCR wants Congress to leave Telangana, YS Jagan wishes Congress should leave Andhra Pradesh, MK Stalin wants it to leave Tamil Nadu, Sharad Pawar wants it to leave Maharashtra,” Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam said. “Is this opposition unity, or a new form of a Congress-free country?”
