The Opposition unity received a shot in the arm as Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that her party would support the Congress wherever the grand old party is strong. On the other hand, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar remarked that Congress big win in Karnataka proves that the BJP can be defeated when the parties contest and go to people with a public-oriented agenda.
This is the first time that Mamata cleared the air on TMC’s stand on a possible strategy for Opposition unity in the 2024 electoral battle.
“Wherever the Congress is strong, let them fight. We will give them support, there is nothing wrong (in that). But they have to support other political parties also,” Mamata told reporters at the State secretariat.
The TMC supremo also made it clear that she expected the seat-sharing formula to give priority to the regional players in areas where they are strong. “Strong regional parties must be given priority,” she said. Mamata had earlier saluted the people of Karnataka after the BJP lost power there while avoiding mention of the grand old party with which TMC has had run-ins in the past.
Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar has already initiated the unification of Opposition parties and held meetings with Mamata, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and a couple of rounds of meetings with Congress leadership.
In all his meetings Nitish was accompanied by his deputy and RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav and has urged the Congress to take the lead and start working. Nitish last week met Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren hinted that the meeting of Opposition parties may take place in Patna after the Karnataka Assembly elections to chalk out plans for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Pawar on his part said that the Congress has alone given an alternative to the BJP and indicated that the Karnataka template needs to be implemented in other States, and for that, like-minded parties will have to work on a common minimum programme (CMP).
“The Karnataka Assembly elections have given a message. We need to work on creating a situation like Karnataka in other States. The Congress alone gave an alternative to the BJP in Karnataka, but in other States, like-minded parties will have to work on a common minimum programme (CMP),” Sharad Pawar said.
Both Pawar and Mamata were part of the Manmohan Singh led UPA Governments and during the last couple of years the latter had resented the very existence of the UPA of which Sonia Gandhi is the chairperson. After a meeting between both the leaders in Mumbai, Mamata had said there are no such things as the UPA of which Congress is a major partner, and recently she had joined the chorus with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh for a non-Congress non-BJP political front to take on the BJP in the next years polls.
Meanwhile, the BJP’s defeat in the Karnataka Assembly elections has spurred the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which has NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) as partners, to put up a united challenge to the ruling party in Maharashtra in the next year’s general elections.
NCP leader Ajit Pawar said leaders are considering forming a panel, which might have two members from each of the partners to decide the candidates for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the State, the BJP had won 23 in 2019, followed by the then undivided Shiv Sena’s tally of 18. While the NCP won 4 seats, the Congress got one.
