– Dr. Anil Kumar Nigam Only a few months are left for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The NDA government is sitting at the center since 2014. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has put all his might to defeat the BJP-led NDA alliance in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. A meeting of leaders of various parties has also been called in Patna on June 12 to bring all the opposition parties on a single platform. Time will tell which way the ‘camel’ will sit in this meeting, but one thing is clear that getting all the parties to agree on a formula is like ‘chewing iron gram’. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is engaged in the campaign of opposition unity. He has visited various states and met the heads of regional parties there. He has so far spoken for opposition unity by meeting Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, Janata Dal-Biju’s Naveen Patnaik, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh etc. . But whether all the opposition parties will come together in a single thread before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections will depend entirely on the stand taken by the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party. It is noteworthy that Naveen Patnaik will not be a part of this opposition alliance, he has already made it clear. Before the assembly elections in Karnataka, the Congress was in a surrender mode. But after the election results in Karnataka, the party’s stand has changed. Now the Congress is setting conditions for opposition unity. It has given a clear indication that it cannot compromise with the BRS, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Left parties in Kerala. Congress President Kharge has already said that the opposition unity will move forward under the Congress leadership. On the other hand, the opposition parties feel that if they accept the leadership of the Congress, it will be a huge loss for them. It is known that the performance of Congress in states like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab and Bihar has been very poor. In such a situation, parties like Aam Aadmi Party, TMC, JDU, RJD and NCP may have to compromise on their seats. The reality is that Nitish Kumar’s biggest bet is behind bringing the opposition parties on a single platform. Nitish, an aspirant to become the Prime Minister, wants to unite the Janata Parivar with opposition unity. After keeping distance from BJP in Bihar, Nitish has held several rounds of talks with RLD, SP, JDS, INLD and RJD for integration. Nitish feels that if unification happens, then there is no other claimant for the post of prime minister in the Janata Dal family. But this path is not looking very smooth for Nitish Kumar. On the one hand, the Congress has clearly spoken about the leadership of the Congress for opposition unity, while Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has also put his condition for opposition unity. Kejriwal told Nitish Kumar that the opposition should unite and oppose the ordinance of the BJP government at the center from Parliament to the road, through which the central government worked to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision related to the authority on administrative services in Delhi Is. He believes that if all the non-BJP parties in the Rajya Sabha unite on this issue, then it will not be possible for the central government to pass the bill related to this ordinance. If this happens in Rajya Sabha then it will be semi-final of 2024 in a way. But the important question is that Kejriwal is not talking about forming an opposition front for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and being a part of it. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that Kejriwal has now become an essential ingredient for opposition unity. The main reason for this is that today the Aam Aadmi Party is in a very strong position in Delhi and Punjab. Apart from this, Aam Aadmi Party is busy in strengthening its organization in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. It is noteworthy that in both the years 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the country’s capital Delhi, BJP had won all the seven seats. But today the position of Aam Aadmi Party is not weak here. In the year 2015 and 2020, the Aam Aadmi Party has registered a historic victory twice in the Delhi Assembly elections. In the year 2015, it won 67 out of 70 seats, while in 2020, the Aam Aadmi Party won 62 out of 70 seats. Apart from the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party, there are some leaders whose ambitions are running rampant. Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader and CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) had asked in one of his rallies whether he should join national politics. Along with this, he also promised to make electricity and water free to the farmers across the country. He is also running a program of financial assistance to the families of the soldiers who were martyred in Galvan. Although NCP’s Sharad Pawar himself may not have expressed any desire for the Prime Ministerial candidate, but his party does not miss talking about Sharad Pawar as the candidate for this post. At the same time, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has not yet opened his cards. When it comes to alliance with parties, they start narrating the bitter experiences of earlier alliance with Congress and Bahujan Samajwadi Party. Ultimately, it is extremely difficult to predict anything about opposition unity in the Lok Sabha elections at this point of time. If the ambitions of Congress, TRS, Aam Aadmi Party, Samajwadi Party etc dominate, then the path of opposition unity can be complicated. Therefore, it can be said that the dependability of this unity will depend more on the stand of the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party.
(The author is a freelance commentator.)
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