After Gandhi's conviction, signs of India's opposition uniting against
Modi
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[March 30, 2023]
By YP Rajesh and Rupam Jain
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - For the first time in years, India's splintered
opposition is sinking its differences to take on strongman Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, which could extend to a substantial challenge in
national elections due in 2024. That is if the disparate groups can stay
united, which is far from certain.
Since Modi came to power in 2014, he has dominated Indian politics, and
trounced the opposition in two successive general elections. But his
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party does not get a majority of the vote
and could be in trouble if it comes up against a united opposition.
The opposition has come together after this month's conviction of
opposition leader Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party on a charge of
defamation and his disqualification from parliament.
Opposition politicians say Gandhi's shock disqualification, and possible
jail time, is the latest evidence of the Modi government's strongarm
tactics and follows investigations and legal troubles faced in recent
months by other opposition parties.
A day after Gandhi's conviction, 14 political parties jointly petitioned
the Supreme Court, saying opposition groups were being selectively
targeted by federal investigative agencies. The court has agreed to hear
the plea on April 5.
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"We are realizing that this atmosphere is very, very dangerous and we
have to come out of this evil atmosphere," K.C. Venugopal, Congress MP
and a close aide of Gandhi, told Reuters. "It is too early to announce
any coalition...but we are trying to get together and now we are very
comfortable with each other."
On Wednesday, Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of the eastern state of
West Bengal and the head of Trinamool Congress party – the fourth
largest in parliament – called for a unified opposition to challenge
Modi's right-wing BJP in the 2024 elections.
Banerjee had previously said her party would contest alone.
"The Modi government's fascist steps have given a new chance for
opposition parties to be united," Trinamool MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, told
Reuters.
There was no immediate response from the prime minister's office but
Modi has himself responded to some of the charges.
"When the agencies take action against those who are involved in
corruption, the agencies are attacked. When the court gives a decision,
the court is questioned. Some parties have together launched a campaign
to save the corrupt," he said this week.
The opposition parties say they will also protest jointly in and outside
parliament, court arrest and draft plans to counter the BJP across the
country in coming weeks.
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![](../images/033023PIX/news_u78.jpg)
India's main opposition Congress party’s
leader Rahul Gandhi holds a news conference after he was
disqualified as a lawmaker by India's parliament on Friday, at
party’s headquarter in New Delhi, India, March 25, 2023. REUTERS/
Anushree Fadnavis/File Photo
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MAJORITY OF VOTES
The 14 main opposition parties accounted for 39% of the national
vote at the last election in 2019 and won 160 seats in the
542-member parliament. BJP alone got 38% of votes but won 303 seats
in the first-past-the-post system.
But there are signs that forging a lasting unity will be difficult.
A senior leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which rules the
national capital territory of Delhi and the northern state of
Punjab, said Congress was not in a position to be the main
opposition "helmsman". It will have to cede space and support other
groups in an alliance, said the leader, who requested anonymity
since he was not authorised to speak to the media on a politically
sensitive issue.
The Samajwadi party, the main opposition in India's largest state,
Uttar Pradesh, has expressed similar opinions. The party's alliance
with Congress in 2019 did not fare well.
Other opposition leaders who spoke to Reuters said their unity would
depend heavily on Congress being willing to accommodate regional
political parties and take a back seat in states where it no longer
enjoys popular support.
The solitary success for a united opposition was in the 1977 general
election, when the then ruling Congress was ousted by a coalition of
parties across the political spectrum.
Still, the coming together of key parties such as Trinamool,
Samajwadi, AAP, and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi in the southern state
of Telangana, is a political turnaround as these parties have long
opposed Congress on a range of issues.
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Modi, however, remains hugely popular with high approval ratings
after nine years in power and has been expected to easily win a
third term in the face of a so-far divided opposition.
"Anti Modi-ism or anti BJP-ism cannot be the glue that brings
together disparate opposition parties with different aspirations and
ambitions and positions," said Nalin Kohli, the BJP's national
spokesperson.
"There have been different times when they have sought to portray a
united front in parliament but...that has never lasted beyond a
short period or a maximum of a few weeks."
(Reporting by YP Rajesh and Rupam Jain in NEW DELHI, additional
reporting by Subrata Nagchoudhury in KOLKATA and Saurabh Sharma in
LUCKNOW; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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