Opposition unity in the face of the ruling BJP, which won the last two general elections in 2014 and 2019, is still a work in progress. But, since the first meeting in Patna on June 23 and the rechristening of the alliance to form the acronym INDIA in the second meeting in Bangalore in July and now after the end of the third meeting in Mumbai, what emerges is the sense that this alliance of disparate parties is in a better place.
There is far more to be achieved in terms of a seat-sharing agreement, which will be the most crucial factor in terms of election arithmetic, and a commonality of action rather than words. But they seem to have picked up speed as well as a sense of purpose towards matching up to the formidable BJP party, which has often been termed a poll winning machine.
Apart from having to contend with the pulls and pressures of the incongruence of national and regional parties that have to compete on certain patches of alliance turf — for example in Bengal, Punjab, Delhi and Kerala where India INDIA member parties will have to face each other in Assembly polls — they have also had the bombshell of an idea of “one Nation , One Poll” floated by the ruling BJP to think about.
Having also heard rumours, as they confabulated for two days, of a possible early Lok Sabha polls to be held together with the elections in five states this year, they also had to resolve to get their preparations going early. It does appear that the poll fever of 2024 has caught on and spread quite early to lend the talks on Opposition unity a sense of urgency as well.
Apart from general discussions on the concept and practice of their own unity, the Opposition parties did get down to the nitty-gritty in forming a 14-member coordination panel, which will avowedly be the bloc’s highest decision-making power group. Their first task, despite a committee chairman not being named, would be the knotty issue of seat-sharing, which they have vowed to tackle in the tight time frame of a month.
Minor friction as in the former Congress leader Kapil Sibal appearing at the unity meeting, much to the chagrin of the Congress Party, which despite its fall from earlier grace is still one of the leading INDIA components, was also forded over for the sake of unity. This spirit of give and take has been lauded as an ideal that must govern the rest of the hard negotiations that are bound to crop up at every stage between now and the general elections.
The search for Opposition unity is a given in the face of the BJP’s strength in the art of preparing for and winning elections. How seriously it is being approached now, as opposed to 2019 which was a battleground of clashing egos among the Opposition parties, is an indicator of a do-or-die sense that is creeping in. The coalition has done well enough in picking price rise, dire jobs scenario and farmer distress as three broad themes on which to attack the ruling BJP-led NDA. Let it be said that most interesting times lie ahead.
