Omkar Dattatray
Fifteen opposition parties have recently met and discussed and deliberated on the important and much needed subject for opposition unity and it is so good that positive efforts are on for cobbling a grand alliance to take on the arrogant and mighty BJP in 2024 general elections.
The opposition parties and their leaders have understood and appreciated that BJP cannot be fought severally but could be countered and shown the door through having opposition unity.
For the opposition unity, Sharad Pawar of the NCP, Nitesh Kumar the chief minister and president of JDU, West Bengal Chief Minister and Supremo of TMC Mamata Banerjee, Lalu Prasad Yadav and last but not the least the main opposition party leader the scion of Gandhi-Nehru parivar Rahul Gandhi and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge have spearheaded the unity move in the opposition parties and had made the Patna meeting of the opposition parties possible as well as successful and at the conclusion of the meaningful opposition unity meeting the leaders of the main opposition parties have reiterated that the unity move will continue and next crucial opposition meeting will be held in Simala.
It is important that more regional non BJP parties should be included in the grand alliance which is in the offing and this will give broader meaning and scope to the opposition unity.
The opposition parties should forget and forgive their differences and continue to join hands to form a grand alliance well before the general elections of 2024 so that the BJP can be fought jointly and secular image of the country will be saved and congress leaders Rahul Gandhi has rightly commented in the meeting that BJP had attacked and assaulted the very base and foundation of India and the unity move is the ideological battle to remove the BJP from again forming the government at the national level after the Lok Sabha elections of 2024.
All the meeting partners and parties should shun the individual differences and come closer to fight jointly the crucial battle of 2024.
It is so good that at the initiative of Nitish Kumar, Sharad Pawar and Mamta Benerjee the majority of opposition parties numbering 15 have met and discussed threadbare the need and importance of having unity in opposition parties without which it is not humanly possible to fight the 2024 general elections and defeat the BJP.
It is very important that all non-BJP parties should come closure and forge a working and functioning alliance and forget their differences in order to make it easy to fight the hegemony and monopoly and misrule of the BJP in 2024 polls as if the opposition works as a divided house, it will become easier for the BJP to again rise to power in 2024 through defeating the congress and other opposition parties.
The important and crucial meeting of the opposition parties and its success is not digestable to the BJP and its leaders are uneasy and are having sleepless nights and so have they mocked at the move of the opposition unity.
The Union Minister Simriti Irani, BJP National President JP Nadda and high profile minister of youth welfare, sports and broadcasting and the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra Devendar Fandnivs all have made fun of the opposition meeting in Patna as there is ache in the belly of these and other BJP leaders and they are afraid of opposition unity as this opposition unity will make BJP’s win in 2024 elections difficult and increase the prospects of gaining electoral dividends in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024.
Patna has become first battleground before 2024.The BJP seems to be so afraid of the opposition unity that it has flooded Patna with posters decrying the meet ,while opposition leaders marked it as a day to reconnect and reminiscence.
With the opposition leaders from across the country pouring into Patna, it has turned into battleground, with BJP going on an overdrive flooding the city of Patna with posters branding the meeting as gathering of thugs and its leaders have criticized the opposition move as a move to protect the dynastic politics and to save such dynastic parties and their defective and selfish agenda.
The opposition parties choose Petna as a venue for its crucial unity meeting for two reasons-neutral ground distinct from Delhi and 1974 call of total revolution by Jayaprakash Narayan that toppled Indira Gandhi’s majority government.
Former deputy chief minister and BJP Raj Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi scoffe at the opposition and singling out congress, he said, “The one who imposed emergency in the country and put Jaiprakesh Narayan in jail ,murderer of democracy, curbed the freedom of press are coming in Bihar and crying out for democracy.”
Democracy, he said, was not in danger, it was the family members of the opposition parties who find themselves in peril.
“They are engaged in saving politics of respective families” he added. Unperturbed by the BJP’s buzz and blitz against them, for the opposition leaders was a day to reconnect and reminiscence before cold headed negotiations begun.TMC leaders and west Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abishek Banerjee, directly went to 5, Deshratna Marg, after landing in Patna and met RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, praising him for his tenacity to fight against BJP on spite of all odds, including prolonged Jail term.
She called the opposition a family and sidestepped the questions on AAP leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s assertion that Delhi ordinance should be discussed first.
But that is not the only tricky problem the opposition has to negotiate.
When the pressmen asked her how would the congress ,the CPIM and TMC settle the electoral equation in West Bengal she said, “Let us see what happens in the meeting tomorrow June 23, after that we will talk.” The opposition meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere at the official residence of chief minister Nitesh Kiumar. PDP chief and former chief minister J&K Mehooba Mufti and former chief minister J&K and NC leader Omer Abdullah also participated in the meeting and discussed many unity and political issues.
It is important that the political parties should shun their minor differences and contradictions and work for the opposition unity without which their regional parties will land in danger and it will benefit the BJP at the end of the day so all opposition parties should take the steps with caution and care and become pillars of the opposition unity.
Leaders of the opposition parties in Patna addressed a press conference on the completion of the meeting convened by the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in Patna.
In press brief that was skipped by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, the opposition made scathing remarks against the BJP.
In a joint statement ,the leaders claimed they would put up a united fight against the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
However no consensus was reached in Patna meeting and another crucial opposition meeting will be held in Shimla.
Earlier in the day before the start of the meeting, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said that all opposition parties were going to defeat BJP in 2024 general elections unitedly. Meanwhile, the BJP has hit out at the opposition meeting calling it a photo session. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav addressed a press conference after the opposition meeting and said, “Lord Hanuman thrashed BJP with his mace in Karnataka and made Rahul Gandhi’s Congress party win.”
He said Lord Hanuman was with opposition and it was certain that BJP would face a massive defeat in the coming polls. It is so well that the unity move of the opposition will continue and next meeting of the opposition for forging a grand alliance will be held soon at Shimla under the chairmanship of senior NCP leader Shrad Pawar and after political churing Amrit-nectar will come out for the opposition and it will be able to cobble a united front to fight the BJP in general election.
(The author is a columnist,
social and KP activist).
