The Opposition Put up A United Front to Take on BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha Election
The much awaited Opposition-Party meet took place in Patna on Friday, June 23. Chief leaders of over 18 opposition parties were anticipated to participate in this groundbreaking event, however leaders of about 15 parties were present at the important meeting.
Proclaiming a united Opposition front in the 2024 Election, as many as 15 parties held the much awaited meet in Patna on June 23. After conferring for over four hours they declared that, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be fought together.
The Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, hosted the meeting at his Patna residence, who is in the vanguard of the opposition unity movement. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackrey, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK leader MK Stalin, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren among others took part in the meeting.
The agenda of the meeting was to evaluate a game plan for “an anti-BJP front” for the upcoming elections. Various opposition parties are planning to develop a campaign pertaining to social justice, which they consider is missing from the “polarising Hindutva politics” of the current regime.
The leaders looked back on Patna’s relevance in terms of Opposition unity, for it was the hub of the Jayaprakash Narayan-led campaign in the 1970s that ended up ousting the Indira Gandhi government.
Rift between AAP and the Congress could be very difficult for the coalition
On Thursday, June 22, Arvind Kejriwal cautioned that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would not be part of the meeting if the Congress remained uncooperative in their struggle against the Centre’s ordinance on the control of services in Delhi. But due to the need for unity among the Opposition the AAP leaders were part of the meeting. Nonetheless, according to the sources, Kejriwal used his time during the meeting to corner the Congress representatives, Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Ganghi, and KC Venugopal, insisting them to make their stand clear on the Delhi ordinance issue on Friday itself during the press conference. This resulted in a brief altercation between Kejriwal and Kharge.
Later that afternoon, the AAP leaders skipped the press conference, post meeting, which led to more speculations if they will be a part of the next Opposition meeting hosted by the Congress in Shimla.
Can this move pose a threat to the current regime?
The events of the past few months may have given anti-BJP voices many reasons to clamour but it is too early to completely disregard BJP’s “Modi-magic”. Moreover, Opposition needs to gain more ground. It is undisputed that the Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra was a great success and crowd puller. Also, Gandhi’s ensuing disqualification from Lok Sabha led as many as 18 opposition parties come his way in solidarity. Subsequently, the Congress’ victory in Karnataka Assembly election further instilled everyone’s confidence in them and paved the way for a united front against BJP. But the opposition parties are not comfortable with the idea of a common minimum programme (CMP) at this point. Also rifts between the Congress and AAP, TMC and the left Parties has presented challenges to unity efforts.
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