‘BJP Harao, Modi Hatao’ is the spirit at Bengaluru

The opposition meeting in Bengaluru on July 17-18 is expected to be more critical and important than the Patna session as the success of the second edition will depend on the parties creating a foolproof plan to tackle their common goal of “BJP harao, Modi hatao”, senior Congress leaders told News18 on Monday.

With the thumping win that the Congress had in Karnataka and a solid performance in Himachal Pradesh, the national party is hoping to lead from the front to achieve the goal of coming back to power, ensuring adequate consensus, and fostering better chemistry between parties, with just a few months to go for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.join

Analysts say that the current opposition, while having a common goal of upturning Narendra Modi’s leadership, still needs to agree on a common candidate who will be the prime ministerial face of the united front. The coalition of 24 parties has a few new ones from southern India like the Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi (KMDK).

Issues such as inflation and the failure to secure wins in states where the BJP boasted of “double engine sarkars” have made it critical for the Congress to come up with an impenetrable opposition, especially in states where it is alleged that the BJP is desperate to break opposition unity, similar to what happened in Maharashtra.

The BJP’s strategy could be similar to how former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1971 campaigned on the plank of reducing poverty in the country while convincing the voters that the opposition had united with a one-point agenda: to oust her. The Congress swept that election.

A senior Congressman, who preferred not to be named, stated, “Modi may try a similar strategy, and we must be ready to face the voters with a solid agenda on why they need to vote for change.”

With this concerted effort, not only will this Congress-led group of opposition parties have to ensure that the regional outfits supporting them remain united, but they also need to secure a big win to bring themselves to power.

Senior Congress leader KC Venugopal reiterated that 26 political parties had expressed their support, and they were trying to evolve unity on various issues.

“Whatever issues come before us, we will discuss and resolve them. The Congress alone cannot take any decision. Issues such as ethnic violence in Manipur, unemployment, and price rise were very important for the opposition. We are all united by a common purpose…to protect democracy, to ensure constitutional rights and independence of our institutions are major issues,” Venugopal said.

Political analyst SA Hemanth says that this united front is also faced with the formidable task of ensuring that their coalition partners do not face an internal split like we saw with the NCP.

“There have been attempts to break the Samajwadi Party or even the RJD. The priority is to ensure the regional parties keep their house in order while extending support to the Congress-led alliance. If they succumb to splits, then opposition unity is a mirage,” he told News18.

Political analyst Sandeep Shastri emphasises that this is not a fight about leadership but a fight about policy priorities. He adds that the moment the opposition makes it a leadership fight, the battle is lost even before it has begun. Shastri raises the question of whether at the end of the day, they (Congress-led opposition) are going to create an anti-BJP platform.

“Is that going to be the glue that keeps them together, or do they have a policy/programme/strategy alternative in place? Are they going to offer merely criticism of the BJP, or are they going to offer an alternative in terms of priorities, policies, and directives? If it is simply to oppose the BJP, while that glue may hold them together for some time, it may come unstuck soon. Anti-BJP cannot alone be the point to hold them together. There has to be a programmatic policy strategy commitment,” he told News18.

The Bengaluru meeting is also an attempt to rope in as many parties into the ‘mahagathbandhan’ fold while ensuring they are in sync. The agenda of the meeting may spell out issues like setting up a committee to draft a common minimum programme, joint party rallies and meetings across the country to garner more support, and addressing the issue of EVMs while suggesting reforms to the Election Commission of India. The real issue at hand, which is expected to be addressed and impressed upon, is that the parties will have to come up with a new name for this newly formed coalition of regional and national parties.

“We will discuss in the meeting whether it will be called the UPA or some other name,” said Jairam Ramesh, chief spokesperson of the Congress party, during a media interaction.

Similarly, the BJP, just like the opposition, has been actively seeking new allies and is expected to hold a meeting on July 18 with its old and new counterparts within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Having managed to pull former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Majhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) out of the grand alliance in Bihar, which includes RJD, JD(U), and the Congress, the BJP is also attempting to rope in as many regional parties as possible to try and post a hat-trick.

With inputs from News18

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