Opposition not using presidential election to counter BJP narrative
Opposition not using presidential election to counter BJP narrative
BJP has stolen the march on the opposition Draupadi Murmu named as presidential candidate, Backed by BJP’s allies and regional parties like Odisha’s BJD and Andhra Pradesh’s YSRCP, she is set to win and become the first woman from a tribal community to occupy the highest office in the republic. The significance of his rise is particularly evident in the 75th year of India’s independence. Despite disturbing signs of mobilizing subaltern communities for majoritarian politics, a tribal woman who succeeded a Dalit to the country’s highest office is a remarkable testament to the depth of Indian democracy. Ms. Murmu She will be the second woman after Pratibha Patil to hold the highest office and will be the youngest President in the country’s history at the age of 64. From Mayurbhanj in Odisha, which forms a large part of India’s tribal population, Ms Murmu was a teacher, and joined the BJP in 1997. She was a minister in Odisha and governor of Jharkhand between 2015 and 2021. The nomination by the BJP for the country’s highest office reflects the party’s continued efforts to include tribal communities politically and culturally. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal signature on the decision is unmistakable and is in line with his tireless efforts to broaden the social base of the BJP far and wide.
With the numbers tilting in favor of the BJP, the opposition could only use the competition for the highest office as an opportunity for a political message. joint candidates of the opposition parties, Yashwant Sinha – Former BJP leader and Union Minister in Janata Dal and BJP governments – hardly serves that purpose. For all his track record, Mr. Sinha hardly represents anything political. That he became a strong critic of Mr Modi after being ignored for the posts, if anything, undermines any claim of his candidature being an ideological counter to the BJP. The lack of imagination, initiative and capability for any radical politics in opposition is clearly visible in the selection of the candidate. While Mr. Modi uses every election as an opportunity to respond to the group aspirations of different communities, the opposition continues to wander and remain in cocoons. Mr Sinha hails from Jharkhand, a tribal state, making the optics of the contest even more damaging to the opposition. The opposition is right to say that the BJP did not make any serious effort to field a consensus candidate. But blaming the BJP as an excuse for its limitations is self-defeating. This is yet another opportunity for the opposition to create a counter-narrative against the BJP, which in such instances is inclusive in its message, while not giving up on a boycott politics.