The Bihar Chief Minister has called off a whirlwind tour of the national capital, questioning the unity of the opposition. Whether the results of their current efforts may be beside the point, for now.
The Bihar Chief Minister has called off a whirlwind tour of the national capital, questioning the unity of the opposition. Whether the results of their current efforts may be beside the point, for now.
Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar was in New Delhi last week. Between tea, lunch and evening snacks, he met at least 10 opposition leaders. Coming out of each meeting, he engaged affectionately with the media, advocated ‘opposition unity’ for the greater good of the nation and practically found himself as a man capable of giving a vital dose to keep Indian democracy alive. Presented.
veterans of coalition politics
For Mr. Kumar, who began his political journey in 1977, coalition politics is no stranger to territory. At the end of the 19-month Emergency, an ideologically different group of leaders came together to form the Janata Party. It was a political development fraught with tension, with three prime ministerial candidates vying for power. After all, the Janata Party, between its two prime ministers, Morarji Desai and Charan Singh, survived for less than three years.
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Mr Kumar also had a front row seat during the messy Janata Dal years in power from 1989, when again conflict between VP Singh, Devi Lal and Chandrashekhar did not allow the government to last a full term, and the Congress came back Came to power in 1991. In both these cases, the alliance was confirmed before the general election, but the agreement did not last long.
The United Front (UF) of 1996 was another experiment when 13 parties came together after a fractured mandate in the Lok Sabha elections. Unlike the two previous coalition experiments, which were put together on an anti-Congress platform, the UF was India’s first national Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) front. The agenda of this unity, it was clearly stated, was to keep out of power the BJP, which had emerged as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha for the first time. UF managed to do this for a little over two years.
NDA, UPA shift
This does not mean that coalition politics is not viable. It was successful thereafter, notably from 1999 to 2014, with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) completing its full term after the fall of its previous government in 1998, and then the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (USA). UPA) completed two full terms. terms. These two alliances had two major differences from the three earlier examples. One, keeping the core of the coalition stable, at least one ally had more electoral power than the others. And two, both had loose ends tied after the election, limiting the bargaining power of the Allies to their numerical strength in parliament.
While Mr. Kumar has yet to describe the form of opposition unity he envisions, his Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) colleague and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav has already talked about giving seats ‘here or there’ and letting go. are doing. One’s arrogance for the greater national interest. He has also said that the Congress should allow regional forces to remain in the ‘driver’s seat’. The same proposal can create hurdles in the works and make opposition unity elusive.
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State level tension
In principle, Mr. Kumar’s attempt to at least initiate dialogue with opposition parties is a significant political development, but can opposition unity be overcome? At least three opposition parties – Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Telangana Rashtra Samithi have refused to work with the Congress. Even if Mr. Kumar manages to persuade the Congress not to claim the driver’s seat, it is not certain that the pre-poll opposition alliances across the country will be without tension. In Punjab it would mean that Congress would give space to AAP and in Telangana to TRS. Both these states are important for the revival of the Congress. In West Bengal, the Left will have to reconcile with the negligible electoral space. In Uttar Pradesh, where the Congress has invested much energy and capital, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has promised to revive the party’s fortunes, which will mean significantly reducing its campaign space and the opposition of the Samajwadi Party. give priority to
Mr. Kumar is no newbie, and has been in the chief minister’s chair for 17 years, at different times in alliance with the BJP, the Congress and the RJD. More than anyone else, he will be aware of these obvious inevitabilities. He has made it clear time and again that he does not wish to be the prime ministerial face of the opposition, and does not expect a Narendra Modi vs Nitish Kumar fight.
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So what is the goal of Mr. Kumar’s current post-realignment strategy? Is he trying to play a bigger role for himself in New Delhi in anticipation of voter fatigue in the next Bihar assembly election, scheduled for 2025? Is this his swan song before he rides into the sunset?
opening up prospects
Politics is an exercise in optimism, in expressing possibilities audaciously. With these questions raising the spirits of the opposition in New Delhi, Mr. Kumar is also changing himself in Bihar as “Paltu Ram”, a nickname given by the BJP to his various somersaults, a politician suited to be. To change.