THE QUEST FOR UNITY

September, it seems, has put a spring in the steps of India’s Opposition leaders. Another determined bid is on to forge an Opposition alliance that can take on the Narendra Modi-led BJP in the 2024 general election.

- Kaushik Deka

 The trigger this time has been Nitish Kumar’s exit from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in August, and the Janata Dal (United) forming a government with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress in Bihar.

On September 1, Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) visited Bihar and met Nitish and his deputy CM, the RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, and called for a “BJP-mukt Bharat”. Four days later, Nitish met Rahul Gandhi in Delhi, ahead of the Congress leader leaving for his 150-day ‘Bharat Jodo’ yatra across the country. On September 8, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was heard telling party men that a united Opposition front would be up and running before the 2024 Lok Sabha election. “The opposition parties will join hands...it will be all of us on one side, the BJP on the other. The BJP’s arrogance of 300 seats will be their nemesis,” she declared.

Meanwhile, as its Bharat Jodo yatra—aiming to build up the public mood against the ruling BJP’s allegedly divisive ways—began from Kanyakumari, the party insisted that it was not Congress’s journey alone, all Opposition forces were welcome to join in. Indeed, in Tamil Nadu, chief minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M.K. Stalin was among those who flagged offthe yatra.