Presidential polls: 17 Opposition parties gang up against NDA regime

NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday hosted a political luncheon for top leaders of 17 mainline Opposition parties with the intent of a grand mobilisation against the NDA regime, bringing back memories of her tea party for AIADMK general secretary J Jayalaithaa in 1999 that led to realignment of parties against the Vajpayee government.

If the meeting subtly set the immediate stage for an imminent contest against the NDA nominee in the presidential poll, the political intent was clearly on building a foundation for an anti-BJP grand alliance before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The resolve to set up a coordination panel and extend the 17-party unity to have floor-coordination in the coming Parliament sessions have been designed to maintain the unity and allow it to politically flourish into a united fight in 2019 Lok Sabha poll.

By using her personal goodwill and connectivity across fault lines of the Opposition landscape, Sonia Gandhi managed to rally, on the very day marking the third anniversary of the Narendra Modi government, the biggest show of opposition unity since the NDA regime assumed office in


2014 and spread its electoral reach across Opposition turfs. The lineup not only saw rivals — Mamata Banerjee and Sitaram Yechury, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav — joining the luncheon politics but also signaled a spread bigger than the erstwhile UPA with Lalu Prasad (RJD), Sharad Yadav-KC Tyagi (JDU), Sharad Pawar (NCP), Deve Gowda (JDS), Kanimozhi (DMK), Sudhakar Reddy-D Raja (CPI), Hemant Soren (JMM), Omar Abdullah (NC), PK Kunhalikkutty (IUML), Jose K Mani (KCM), NK Premachandran (RSP), Badaruddin Ajmal (AIUDF) turning up.


Each of these parties have a shared concern in the surge of BJP across their respective turfs and that may work as a political glue for meeting the challenge together. The Congress president was flanked by party colleagues Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel and Mallikarjun Kharge. With a skillfully woven political statement endorsed at the meeting, the 17 parties deftly signaled their resolve for forcing a presidential contest, with the intent of passing the blame for it on the NDA regime.

“The normal practice has been that the ruling party takes the initiative to build a consensus on the names of candidates for President/vice-president. This has not happened so far. If acceptable consensus candidates do not emerge, then we shall decide to field such persons who shall steadfastly defend the constitutional values of our Republic,” the statement said. With their preferred ‘consensus candidate’ (Pranab Mukherjee) not in NDA’s list and with the Opposition sure not to see any ‘secular credentials’ and ‘commitment’ to ‘constitutional principles’ in any of the names that the government is likely to propose, the stage is clearly

set for a contest. No probable names of Opposition candidates were discussed but all leaders who spoke at the session underlined the need to prepare for a presidential contest. The resolution added political content for the future by underling how the Modi regime’s policies have hit the political constituencies such as minorities, weaker sections, Dalits, Tribals, youth, farmers and workers.

To buy tactical time to see whether the PM will reach out to the Opposition with the name of an NDA nominee, Sonia Gandhi will carry on with more discussions and will also set up a coordination panel to finalise the Opposition candidates. The next Opposition unity sow will be at DMK patriarch Karunanidhi’s birthday meeting in Chennai.