Opposition, joint Opposition, or the INDIA bloc? With cohesion in the Opposition ranks taking shape during the just-concluded Monsoon Session, there has been a subtle change in the nomenclature of the anti-BJP Opposition front in a bid to accommodate parties such as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which have had several disagreements and differences with the Congress, at a time when consensus emerged in the Opposition ranks on the issue of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral polls in Bihar and Vice-Presidential elections.
On more than one occasion, Opposition leaders have said that former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy is the “joint Opposition”, or simply the Opposition, candidate and not that of the INDIA bloc. “We are calling him a joint candidate of the opposition and we are consciously using the term ‘Opposition’ to draw parties in that are not part of the INDIA bloc,” said a senior Opposition MP.
Another Opposition MP explained, “A few weeks ago, (AAP convener Arvind) Kejriwal had announced he is no longer part of the INDIA bloc. But when it comes to Justice Reddy’s candidature, the AAP is also on board…This (change in the nomenclature) is to address whatever difference of opinion that Opposition leaders who are not part of the INDIA bloc may have.”
While announcing Justice Reddy’s candidature on Tuesday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had emphasised that the choice was a unanimous one, highlighting the significance of such a consensus. “All Opposition parties have nominated Shri B Sudershan Reddy garu as their joint candidate for the position of the Vice President of India … I am happy that all Opposition parties agreed on one name. It is a big achievement for democracy if all the Opposition parties can come together at a point like this.”
Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Derek O’Brien was quick to point out that the AAP, which was not present at the event, was also on board with Reddy’s candidature. According to sources, O’Brien met Kejriwal after Reddy’s name was decided upon and the former Delhi CM agreed to back the former Supreme Court judge.
Both the AAP and the TMC have had disagreements with the Congress more than once, with the Kejriwal-led party failing to work out a seat-sharing arrangement for either the Haryana or Delhi Assembly elections. The TMC and the Congress are also direct rivals in West Bengal and have targeted each other aggressively despite being on board the anti-BJP front nationally. After Bihar, the next big poll battle will be fought in Bengal.
Having launched an SIR front and determined not to let the BJP get a free pass on the Vice-Presidential elections, these parties appear to be closing ranks for now. This temporary truce was also seen at a dinner Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi hosted at his Delhi home this month, where TMC second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee was present, as well as an Opposition press conference earlier this week in which AAP MP Sanjay Singh was one of those who addressed the media. The press conference had been called to counter the comments made by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
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The TMC, which has kept an arm’s length from the Congress in Parliament of late, attended Opposition meetings even while making it known that it was not an electoral ally of the Congress, unlike other parties in the INDIA bloc.
“From the first day of this Monsoon Session, the shaky Modi coalition was on the defensive. The Vice President of India went missing and the BJP still had not found a new national President. Plus, the vote chori issue. So, they needed to find ways to distract and disrupt the full session,” said O’Brien.
“What the Opposition did right was that we parked outside our state-level issues and focused on one issue…which is not SIR but ‘vote chori (vote theft)’. There is a difference between SIR and vote chori… SIR is a complex issue, vote chori people could understand,” another TMC leader said.
In fact, the idea that the protest be taken to the streets from Parliament, which resulted in some 300 MPs marching to the Election Commission last week, came from TMC chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. “We are glad we managed to convince all our colleagues to take the fight from inside Parliament, onto the streets. Our MPs in both Houses are all that an Opposition should be: fearless, controlled aggression,“ said O’Brien.
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But does a change in nomenclature signal a shift away from the INDIA bloc? According to the AAP, the first INDIA bloc member to call it quits and say that the tie-up was over after the Lok Sabha polls, Opposition unity will be decided on a case-by-case basis.
“As far as the AAP is concerned, our support to the INDIA bloc, like in this instance for the joint Vice-Presidential candidate, is issue-based just like it was before the formation of the coalition. Going forward as well, the AAP’s support to any Opposition party will depend on what the issue is,” said a senior party leader.