Following Sharad Pawar’s interview with a prominent media house which exposed the opposition’s divided stance on the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani-Hindenburg row, the opposition has once again attempted to recover from the blow and forge unity among its various factions.
The recent meeting between Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav yesterday, is seen to be a leap in that direction.
As per an NDTV report, the meeting laid out an outreach strategy to various opposition players who would follow the divide-and-conquer rule. While the Congress decided to reach out to friendly and like-minded parties like Uddhav Thackeray's faction of Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Nitish Kumar has taken upon himself the heaviest tasks.
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Quoting sources, the report said that Nitish Kumar has given his nod to approach parties who remain equidistant from both the BJP and the Congress. This means reaching out to Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Without much ado, Nitish Kumar met with the Delhi Chief Minister last night. "I am complete with him. It is extremely necessary that the entire opposition and the country come together and change the government at the Centre," Kejriwal was quoted saying after the meeting.
The Bihar Chief Minister also took the task of reaching out to K Chandrashekar Rao of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress. Both the parties and their leaders have maintained their distance from Congress, therefore making the “Nitish formula” interesting to watch.
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Meanwhile, Pawar said that he could not join the Congress-Nitish Kumar meeting due to work. "I will go to Delhi and meet them," the NCP leader told reporters.
Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United (JDU) has proposed what they call the "Nitish formula" of opposition unity. "The only way to win against Narendra Modi is to follow one-against-one policy in 2024, which means one seat, one candidate from the opposition against the BJP candidate," senior Janata Dal-United leader KC Tyagi stated.
Tyagi was also quoted in the report where he explained that the strategy is tried and tested and it is not a new formula. It delivered results in both 1977 and 1989. However, in both these cases, the Congress party returned to power within two years.
"We will be sitting and discussing various formulas and are willing to have various strategies in the run-up to 2024. The idea is for all like-minded opposition parties to come together on a common meeting ground," said Nasir Hussain, a Congress MP who was present at the meeting between Nitish Kumar and Mallikarjun Kharge that took place at Kharge’s residence.
The BJP has responded to this new formation with skepticism. "This is exactly the reason why Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it a coalition of the corrupt. How are they going to ever sort out their internal differences?" BJP spokesperson RP Singh critically said.
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As a sub-strategy, Kumar's deputy Tejashwi Yadav was also assigned the responsibility of talking to Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, who is his family friend and relative.
Left leaders supported the idea saying it was for "secular, democratic forces" to come together and maximize the anti-BJP vote.
"Nitish Kumar is taking some initiative to build the unity of secular democratic parties. The country is passing through a very critical period. The Constitution and democracy are under attack. It is important for parties to come together against the BJP," said CPI's D Raja.
