The key Opposition meeting in Patna at the call of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is taking place with around half-a-dozen chief ministers of non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled states having gathered in Patna posing as a united front ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls with an aim to defeat the BJP at the Centre.
Calling the meeting a ‘welcome step for democracy’, social analyst NK Choudhary said it has challenges of its own. He added that it is different from when all the opposition parties had joined hands against the Congress after the imposition of Emergency almost five decades ago by the then Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi.
“In a democracy, Opposition parties have a right to fight election unitedly and in the prevailing circumstances, it is a positive sign for democracy. Without opposition, democracy is not real, especially in view of the concentration of power in one party or one person. This also has a parallel to history. When absolute power vested in the Congress party and late Indira Gandhi, who imposed an Emergency, all opposition parties forgetting their ideological difference, joined hands,” he added.
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NK Choudhary said that the BJP is a reincarnation of Jansangh, but there is a difference. “Jan Sangh was weak, while BJP has emerged strong. Secondly, post-emergency, all opposition parties were weak and they merged into one party. The same is not happening now.”
He said that the regional powerhouses like West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao, and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik have their own turf to protect.
He added, “Congress is trying to gain and is on the up after Karnataka, but regional powerhouses will not allow it at their own cost. That makes the challenge bigger, but the mere realisation that they should come together is a big strong forward for a common cause at this stage.”
DM Diwakar, social analyst and former director of AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies said that Nitish Kumar managing to bring so many non-BJP parties on one platform despite differences and turf war was a success in itself, though challenges would start unfolding as things would progress.
“The non-BJP parties have realised that it will not be easy to ensure regime change without joining hands and if they have to succeed, they will have to bury their differences for the time being. Nitish Kumar has brought them to a table for discussion. He has done his job. Now it is for the parties to deliberate how they want to go forward. Deliberation is important. There cannot be half measures for full result and all the parties know it,” he added.
Meanwhile, slamming the unity meeting, Bihar BJP chief Samrat Choudhary had on Thursday said that even if they all come together, they cannot match Prime Minister Narendra Modi even by half. “They neither have a leader nor any common ground. Their sole objective is to remove Modi, as they know he is here to stay,” he had said.
Samrat continued that those who have looted India, are trying to put on a united front out of sheer fear due to the continued crackdown on corruption against them.
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“Nitish Kumar has always required a crutch to run his government. Whenever he fears losing the crutch, he throws a tantrum. The unity move is a sham. There are three streams running in the country– make-in India, breaking India and looting India. The present gathering in Patna is the third stream, which has half the leaders on bail while the rest may land in jail any day,” the Bihar BJP chief said.
Responding to this, Janata Dal-United spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said that the anxiousness of the BJP is understandable as whenever the non-BJP parties have united, the magic of PM Modi has waned and the Union minister’s strategies have failed.
“It happened at the peak of their popularity in 2015 when Bihar showed it at the state level and now is the time to replicate it at the national level. History will repeat itself,” said the JD-U spokesperson.
The Opposition leaders’ meeting is underway at CM Nitish Kumar’s residence in Patna.
