15 parties on board, Opposition vows to fight 2024 elections together

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, June 23

For the first time since PM Narendra Modi assumed office in 2014, several opposition stalwarts came together publicly to announce that they had reached an agreement to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections together and would evolve state-specific strategies at a meeting in Shimla next month.

Next strategy meeting in Shimla in July

• Kharge, Nitish, Rahul, Mamata, Pawar call for unity; AAP strikes a discordant note
• In attendance at Patna meet: Cong, JDU, RJD, NC, SP, CPIML, CPM, CPI, JMM, DMK, AAP, NCP, Shiv Sena, TMC, DMK
• Parties agree to evolve state-specific strategies at a meeting in Shimla next month

Emerging from a four-hour meeting of 15 opposition parties hosted by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar in Patna today, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and leader Rahul Gandhi, TMC’s Mamata Banerjee, NCP’s Sharad Pawar, SP’s Akhilesh Yadav, JMM’s Hemant Soren, among others, backed the unity pledge, saying a decision had been made to “come together to save India and dislodge the BJP in 2024”.

Mamata said there would be no further elections “if a dictatorial BJP got re-elected in 2024”. Opposition unity efforts, however, confronted its first challenge from AAP, which said, “Until the Congress publicly denounces the Centre’s ordinance on bureaucratic postings in Delhi and declares that all 31 of its Rajya Sabha MPs will oppose it in the Upper House, it will be very difficult for AAP to participate in future meetings of like-minded parties where the Congress is a participant.”

The statement came minutes after AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann left Patna after the meeting. The two skipped a joint appearance with other leaders as did DMK’s MK Stalin. Host Nitish Kumar later said the three leaders had flights to catch.

Sources said the Congress and AAP clashed bitterly at the meeting on the ordinance issue with Kejriwal demanding commitment from Kharge and the latter objecting to AAP’s Congress-BJP nexus allegations on the matter.

That said, shoots of opposition unity appeared on ground with all attending leaders echoing Nitish Kumar who was the first to announce an understanding for 2024 and the semi-finals in Telangana, MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh before that.

“We had a very productive meeting. An agreement has been reached to fight elections together. One more meeting will happen where state specific understandings will take a final shape,” said Kumar.

Kharge hailed the presence of leaders from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and said all would work as one to draft a common agenda for the elections. “We will meet again in Shimla on July 10 or 12 to evolve an agenda and see what decisions can be taken. We will need state specific strategies as one size fits all will not work. Strategies for Tamil Nadu, J&K, Bihar, UP, Maharashtra will be devised,” he said.

Rahul said the Congress would work with flexibility to protect a shared opposition ideology. “We stand together. We will have some differences, but we have decided that we will work together with flexibility and protect our shared ideology,” he said.

Listing three areas of agreement, Banerjee said, “We are united, we will fight unitedly and we should not be called the opposition as we are Indian citizens and are patriotic.”

Sitting an arm’s length from her was Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the CPM, TMC’s arch rival in Bengal, who added that opposition unity would be visible in the form of public campaigns on issues of price rise and joblessness soon.

NC’s Omar Abdullah, PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti and Shiv Sena UBT’s Uddhav Thackeray all backed anti-BJP alliance talks with Omar noting that the fight was “not for power but for the revival of democracy in India”.

Though the leaders made the right noises today, contradictions in opposition ranks were apparent with the TMC, Congress and the CPM fighting each other in the Bengal panchayat poll and AAP and the Congress contesting against each other in Punjab and Delhi.

It remains to be seen how the opposition manages these contradictions. Only today, Bihar former deputy CM and BJP veteran leader Sushil Modi had an incisive question for the opposition camp: “Who is their leader? Who will take on Narendra Modi in 2024?” The assembly today steered clear of leadership of the opposition ranks.

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