Opposition jamboree in Patna amid visible fault line

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By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, May 30: On the initiative of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the Opposition parties will meet in Patna on June 12 to decide on the future roadmap of working out ‘one-on-one’ contest with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. But limitations of such an ambitious task are now becoming visible, as Congress leader Jairam Ramesh went ballistic against the Trinamool Congress for ‘poaching’ a party MLA in West Bengal.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was the first mover of the idea that the Congress should restrict to just 200 Lok Sabha seats in the general election to be held next year. Banerjee on Tuesday floated another argument that the adjustment among the Opposition parties should be limited only for national elections.

She argued that while the Opposition parties can be together at the national level, they must understand the limitations at the state level. A few hours before her statement, Ramesh had given his tongue lashing to the TMC, saying “three months after he was elected as a Congress MLA in a historic victory, Bayron Biswas has been lured away by the TMC in West Bengal. This is a complete betrayal of the mandate of the people of the Sagardighi Assembly constituency. Such poaching which has happened earlier in Goa, Meghalaya, Tripura and other states is not designed to strengthen Opposition unity and only serves the BJP’s objectives”.

Ramesh is known to have more weight in the Congress decision making, as besides being the head of the communication department of the party he is also a member of the inner group around former party president Rahul Gandhi.

The key movers of the Opposition unity, sources said, want the Congress to restrict to just two Lok Sabha seats, and “also shut the loud mouths who keep levelling allegations against the West Bengal chief minister”. After assertive voices within the Congress called upon the party leadership to stay away from the Aam Aadmi Party over the Delhi Ordinance issue, which the Bihar chief minister had taken as a plank for the Opposition unity, the bitterness between the main Opposition party and the TMC is clearly coming to the fore.

“The Congress and the Left parties have tested their arrangements to contest elections in West Bengal together. Neither the Congress nor the Left parties can offer the 40 Lok Sabha seats to the TMC on a platter,” said a Congress insider.

Incidentally, the Congress has been seen to be losing grounds to the regional parties. “The Congress revival cannot take place until the party wrests the support base from the regional parties. West Bengal, Delhi and Punjab are the grounds where the Congress has to work hard,” said a senior Congress functionary.

The Congress has gained confidence after the victory in the Karnataka Assembly election. The main Opposition party appears weighing proposals of the Bihar chief minister for equations on which there could be adjustments, but the mood in the party is seen more to wait for the year-end Assembly elections.