New Delhi: Forsworn political rivals stood together on one stage in Kolkata’s Brigade Ground, holding each other’s arms high and posing for cameras, promising to replace the current Prime Minister in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
But replace Narendra Modi with whom? There were over two dozen political leaders from regional and national parties in attendance.
This has been a big question looming over the idea of a ‘grand alliance’. Even within the opposition ranks, some political parties are hopeful of doing well, others are hopeful of doing better. So what formula to use, how to defeat the BJP while everyone is eyeing the top chair?
On Saturday, a section of the opposition answered it with one word — ‘sacrifice’.
“We have to sacrifice. Before asking people, we should lead by making sacrifice. Every community will have to make sacrifices…” former J&K chief minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah said, emphasising on the urgency of dissolving political differences and joining forces.
Former union minister Yashwant Sinha underlined the point further, saying, “I have said before that the nation is going through tough times. I don't want anything in my life. There is only one wish I have, only one battle left to fight, and that is to get this government out of power.”
His colleague and former BJP leader Arun Shourie echoed this sentiment. “Farooq Abdullah has rightly said that we have to approach these elections with a sense of sacrifice not calculation. That should be our approach,” Shourie said.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a way seconded this proposal by warning from the dais that the BJP needed to be defeated “at any cost”, or else absolute Fascism will prevail.
Samajwadi Party leader and former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, who has been quoted saying he was not averse to the idea “of having a PM from UP”, questioned the very question of opposition’s PM candidate. “The BJP workers taunt us, our idea of alliance, by asking us who our PM candidate would be. Let us ask the BJP, when Modi fails, who will you project as your PM candidate?”
But it wasn’t as if the party leaders had let go of their private ambitions.
When Congress’ Abhishek Manu Singhvi proposed the idea of fielding one joint opposition candidate against BJP nominees in every Lok Sabha seat to avoid division of votes, leaders of some regional parties dropped hints to suggest that they were not to be given short shrift in the name of ‘sacrifice’.
“During the last seven decades, we have seen the emergence of strong regional leaders. Take the instance of DMK, SP and BSP, Chandrababu Naidu, Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar and Arvind Kejriwal... We are gearing up to set a formidable opposition...in this regional parties are the only ones that can fulfill the aspirations of common people, who understand their pulse,” JD(S) leader and Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy said.
BSP general secretary and the party’s representative to Mamata Banerjee’s event, Satish Chandra Mishra, asserted that Saturday’s event in itself only wasn’t momentous — it had a very recent precedent.
“The end of the BJP's demise was announced on the 12th. It started with the press conference by Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati (in which they announced a pre-poll tie-up in UP). This rally is continuation of that step.”
Leader of Opposition in Bihar and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav was the big representative from his state and he did not miss the chance of reminding his audience about it.
While underscoring opposition’s unity — by comparing their presence to needles and threads weaving a colourful unity against the BJP — Tejashwi spoke in Bhojpuri, directly addressing the people of Bihar in the crowd, and spoke about his jailed, ailing father.
A third message, most vociferously voiced by Farooq Abdullah, also emerged from the event. This was about the EVMs.
“The EVM is chor machine. Its use must be put to an end. Nowhere in the world is the machine used. The opposition parties should approach the Election Commission and the President of India to stop the use of the EVM and bring back the old ballot papers for the sake of transparency,” he said.
In a post-event press conference held by leaders of various parties, several leaders, including Mamata Banerjee, repeated Abdullah’s concerns. Congress’ Singhvi said that while parties understood that very less time remained for elections, in which replacing the mechanism of voting from EVMs to ballots may be difficult for the Election Commission, he demanded that the poll panel verify at least 50% of the votes polled in the Lok Sabha elections.
Banerjee announced that a four-member team from the available set of leaders would study the issue and present it before the rest of the opposition. “We will all go and meet the EC and express our concerns before them,” Banerjee said, hinting that among other issues, the upcoming parliamentary elections will see possible controversies over EVMs.
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