Issues of face against Modi, feilding one candidate may take centrestage
Even JDU, which was projecting Bihar CM Nitish Kumar in PM race, has stepped back & directed its workers to not raise slogans in his favour;
As the heads of opposition parties are all set to meet in Patna on June 23, there are three important challenges that they have to find a workable solution for the durability of the ‘united opposition team’ comprising 16 out of total 21 parties.
According to a senior leader from the opposition camp, as of now, it appears a little difficult to find a solution to three key issues such as fielding one candidate of opposition on one seat, the face for the post of prime minister and bringing Biju Janata Dal, YSR Congress and BRS to the Opposition fold.
As per experts, the concept of fielding one candidate from ‘united opposition’ for one Lok Sabha seat is very convincing and it would have effective results too.
“The conflicting aspect of this proposal is to bring all opposition parties on board as there are some state-centric political parties that may not follow it. In some states, all non-BJP parties are standing united to defeat BJP in Lok Sabha polls, but at the same they are opponent to each other during the assembly polls,” the expert said, adding that the opposition parties must find a workable solution to this issue in the states of West Bengal, Kerala, Delhi, Punjab, Telangana.
The second most important challenge for the Opposition parties is to declare a united candidate for the PM post who can take on BJP’s undisputed leader Narendra Modi. However, it’s been the strategy of the opposition parties to not declare a PM candidate as it may become an obstacle to keep all opposition parties under one roof.
Even the JDU, which was projecting Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the PM race, has stepped back and appealed to its workers to not raise slogans in favour of Nitish to be PM face. Similarly, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar has also supported going to polls without a PM face.
The third important challenge for the opposition parties is to bring more parties to its fold as out of 21, only 16 parties have confirmed their participation for the June 23 meeting. There are several parties that are not with the BJP, but they are not ready to join the opposition camp. The parties such as BJD, YSR Congress and BRS have not opened their cards. As per experts, the BRS may join the Opposition league in times to come. It’s also hopeful that the other parties may align with opposition parties after the poll results.
As per party insiders, apart from these issues, the opposition parties would also discuss to formulate a strategy for wooing youth as well as minority vote share to their fold.