The Opposition’s show of unity led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee last week has sparked a fresh war of words with the BJP’s estranged ally Shiv Sena and Opposition Congress claiming it has given Prime Minister Narendra Modi the “shivers” ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Hitting back, Union Ministers Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh said it is only the “fear” of Modi’s popularity and a “certain comeback” and BJP’s successes that is bringing multiple disparate forces to come together against the Prime Minister.
Referring to the Opposition’s show of unity at a rally organised by Banerjee in Kolkata on Saturday, the Sena, in an editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamna’, asked Modi not to live in an illusion that his Government is “immortal”. The Sena said the Trinamool Congress(TMC) supremo was taking the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combine head-on.
“Most of the leaders who attended the rally, including Banerjee, were once allies of the BJP under Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s leadership and there is no need to ridicule them. Modi’s Government is not an enemy of the country but he should not live in an illusion that his Government is ‘amar’ (immortal). Why did Modi get shivers from the coming together of 22 Opposition parties,” it wondered,” it added.
Banerjee had invited Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to the rally. “All those present on Banerjee’s platform were secularists. The Sena is not pseudo-secularist. Our ideology is ‘hindutva’ and we are firm on our stand on the issues of Ram temple and uniform civil code. The Kolkata rally could not have digested Shiv Sena’s stand,” it added.
Modi on Sunday dismissed the “mahagathbandhan” (grand alliance) of Opposition parties, alleging it was an alliance of “corruption, negativity and instability” and one created by those affected by his fight against graft.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who is abroad for a treatment as per media reports, said its going to be advantage BJP in the general elections as an aspirational society will not commit a “collective suicide” by voting for a short-lived political alliance. Jaitley said the Opposition rally in Kolkata became significantly “a non-Rahul Gandhi rally” by his conspicuous absence.
Dismissing the Opposition ‘Mahagathbandhan’ as unviable and unworkable, Jaitley said India has moved ahead of 1971 and the aspirational society will not commit a “collective suicide” in the upcoming general elections.
BJP had described the Kolkata rally as a gathering of “opportunist elements” with the sole agenda of removing Modi without any roadmap for the country’s future. The two-fold strategy of the Opposition parties for the general elections is to pursue anti-Modi agenda and take advantage of the electoral arithmetic, he said in a Facebook post titled ‘Agenda for 2019 — Modi Vs Chaos’.
Recalling the 1971 General Elections, Jaitley said the Opposition had formed a ‘Grand Alliance’ or the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ teaming up against the then prime minister Indira Gandhi but remained unsuccessful. His cabinet colleague Home Minister Rajnath Singh said it was the fear of BJP’s successes that made the Opposition parties come together. “They (mahagathbandhan parties) are afraid that BJP will form government again..,” Singh told reporters in Greater Noida.
Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel said Modi’s recent remarks about the Opposition’s ‘mahagathbandhan’ and his body language “proved” he was “afraid” of its unity. Patel said the coming together of Opposition parties is guided by a “common objective” to defend and protect the Constitution. “Only those who have undermined and tried to sabotage the Constitution seem to be extremely perturbed by Opposition unity,” said Patel.