IImmediately following the glow of harmony in Karnataka, fault lines may be smothered. But can India or the Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance, a newly formed front of 26 opposition parties united in their aim to challenge Narendra Modi, survive the internal tensions and strains?
Tensions within India are likely to be most intense, in West Bengal, Tripura, Kerala, Delhi and Punjab. Political rivals will have to put aside their differences and agree on seat sharing so that the fight against the BJP in 2024 does not become weak.
CPM has been forthright as far as West Bengal is concerned. However, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will continue the electoral battle against the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the state. Several top CPM leaders – Sitaram Yechury, Brinda Karat and CPM Bengal chief Mohammad Salim – have spoken their mind after the Karnataka meeting.
“I suggested the name V for India. Everyone agreed that it was a good slogan but India would have been a better name. The last letter in English was A, hence the word Alliance was used. But this is not an electoral alliance,” Yechury said in an interview Gana ShaktiNewspaper of CPI-M.
Yechury said that the Left parties will fight against both the BJP and the TMC in Bengal. “We will seek support from the Congress and other parties. There will be a Left vs Congress contest in Kerala. Each state has its own reality,” he said, leaving nothing to the imagination.
Read also: India is a bunch of dreamers of a ‘Modi-mukt parliament’. It’s just another UPA
bengaluru friendship
The Bengal Congress has not said anything conclusive. Even its usually outspoken state chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, one of Mamata Banerjee’s worst critics, appears to be holding his horses. He has only talked about the lack of connection between what happened in Bengaluru and what is happening in Bengal.
But then it was difficult to ignore the camaraderie that was witnessed between Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Mamta Banerjee in the Bengaluru meeting. It was a repetition of the warmth that had been witnessed in the Patna meeting.
In the past, Banerjee had not complained about the indifferent attitude towards Rahul Gandhi. He was ruthless too. Recently, in the Meghalaya assembly elections, Gandhi visited the state only once for campaigning. His speech was notable because he spent most of the time attacking the TMC, not the ruling National People’s Party (NPP). He had his reasons. The TMC took away most of the Congress MLAs – 12 out of 17 – with it. Recapture of Goa and Tripura. And the Congress got irritated.
In Bengal, Adhir Chowdhury has been at loggerheads with the TMC for a long time, ever since he started poaching its MLAs from the Congress in 2013 following differences with the Congress. While campaigning for the panchayat elections that year, CM Banerjee said that it was a mistake to have an alliance with the Congress in the 2009 Lok Sabha and 2011 assembly elections. in 2011 assembly TMC won 185 out of 294 seats and Congress won 42 seats in the election. Today the Congress seats are zero. The party won the Sagardighi bypoll in March this year, but within two months, Congress MLAs joined the TMC, leaving the Congress “a signboard party” in Bengal.
Read also: Modi is following the script of 2014 in his criticism of the India alliance. just a turn
A change before 2024
However, three days after India’s birth in Bengaluru, a change is palpable in the air in Kolkata. At her annual Martyrs’ Day rally on July 21, Mamata Banerjee did not attack the Congress even once in her speech and mentioned the CPM. His main and sharp thrust was against the BJP and Modi. It was a departure from the past when all three parties were always on target, to a greater or lesser extent, yes, But never this time has the focus been so much on the BJP alone.
Referring to the violence in Manipur, he launched the harshest attack on the BJP, “you guys are killers,
For India, the 2024 election will not be a path strewn with roses. In Bengal, the TMC will have to contend with the Congress and the Left over seat sharing, similarly in Tripura. There will be a direct fight between the Congress and the Left in Kerala; Aam Aadmi Party and Congress will be face to face in Punjab and Delhi.
But what has irked India’s 26 opposition parties is Tagore’s iconic song, akla cholo reAll very well, but with a political enemy like Modi and the BJP, a joint venture is likely to be more effective. Politically speaking, alliance. India has seen a series of coalition formations since 1989 – led by VP Singh, Narasimha Rao, twice by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, IK Gujral, Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh. From 2014, the ruling coalition was also one but in name only. India has more effective examples to follow.
The writer is a senior journalist based in Kolkata. She tweets @Monidepa62. Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)