The BJP’s recent sweeping victory in UP state elections have raised eyebrows in the opposition of what will be their strategy, assuming there is, to stop TsuNAMO.
Strong democracies need strong opposition. At this stage in Indian politics, we lack a strong opposition. Congress is in shambles and regional parties are, well, regional parties. Its important to highlight the plight of Congress. No local leaders, communication gap, no strategic intent and invisible top leadership (Nehru-Gandhi clan) and the very likely continuance of the same will only aggravate the problems of Congress. Is it time for Rahul Gandhi to become the Congress president and lead from front, which makes me wonder what he has been doing for the past decade? Can Priyanka Gandhi be the saviour? Is Congress weaker than ever? Can there be face who is not a Gandhi? Can somebody put them out of their misery? So many questions but one all are talking about is a possibility of ‘grand alliance’, where all parties might combine to fight against their nemesis, Narendra Modi. Can the regional parties and Congress together stop the BJP bandwagon?
SP was driving on the ‘so called’ development campaign in UP but with family drama and as few say the unnecessary alliance with Congress, they lost the plot. BSP looked out of touch with the secular and dalit card only to talk about. To give Modi a run for his money, UP needs to be won. This can happen with BSP & SP with Congress coming together. However, both SP and BSP should start building their own party after the recent mauling rather than having national ambitions even if it is to stop Modi Will these 2 adversaries with years of hatred, come together and stop BJP rather than focus on what went wrong a week earlier?
The TMC have a strong face in Mamata Banerjee, who with her ambitions and turbulent behavior cannot be trusted, especially after withdrawing support in 2012 in UPA-2. Left front did the same in 2008, in which the UPA-1 narrowly survived a vote of confidence. Giving support to the alliance would not be problem, continuing it could surely be.
JDU-RJD is an interesting prospect. For the foreseeable future they are together. They have strong face in Nitish Kumar, who has time and again denied his ambition to be the prime minister of India.
Can he or the alliance take the risk of trying for Delhi with possibility of losing in Bihar in 2020, when BJP will be out with a full frontal attack?
DMK & AIADMK with their mutual hatred could be willing to join hands. AIADMK is practically looking at starting from scratch with the unfortunate demise of Jayalalithaa. The loss of an influential leader and drama post her death shows weakness in the faction which must be repaired to win the state again. DMK will be looking forward to get back the state in 2021 after an improved performance in 2016.
Then comes AAP, rambunctious and darling of troll media, which projects itself as a new face in Indian politics. A stunning win in Delhi state elections was followed by a disappointing loss in Punjab. They want to enter into as many states as possible but apparently are not concentrating in their home state of Delhi. Remember, they contested in 432 (432!) but only won 2 seats in 2014 general elections. They just confuse and amuse me quite often.
There are more parties, more permutations and combinations, more ifs and buts though repetitive. Nevertheless bottom-line is India with the rise of Modi needs a strong opposition and possible even a stronger leader just for the sake of democracy inspite of the commendable job our PM has done. 2019 or 2024 it is for the ‘inevitable’ grand alliance to decide.