As the third summit of INDIA parties began on Thursday, several leaders urged the bloc to pick up its pace and show a “sense of urgency”. At least two of them — Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Samajwadi Party’s senior leader Ramgopal Yadav — spoke of the need to have a seat-sharing formula in place at the earliest.
Before a dinner hosted by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the leaders of the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) sat together for an informal chat, where each expressed their opinions. There were no discussions on naming a convenor or chairpersons for the coalition, sources said. Instead, it was decided that a set of working groups, including a coordination committee, and a joint committee for communications, campaign and public programmes, would be decided in Friday’s meeting. A panel of national spokespersons for the INDIA bloc could also be announced on Friday.
Need for speed
The Union government’s decision to hold a special session of Parliament on September 18 to 22 was a major topic during the talks. It is learnt that Mr. Kejriwal argued that the special session could be an indication that the Narendra Modi-led government will call for an early election, clubbing the upcoming Assembly polls with the Lok Sabha election. Keeping this in mind, he said that the Opposition coalition’s seat-sharing formula should be in place by September 30.
These negotiations could end up particularly thorny in the case of Punjab and Delhi, caught between the ambitions of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress. While the AAP wants to be seen in the drivers seat in Punjab, following its victory in the Assembly polls, the Congress is not willing to ride the pillion.
The SP’s Mr. Yadav, sources said, remarked that the BJP was not a force in south, instead emphasising that Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, will be crucial in tilting the scales. The INDIA bloc’s seat-sharing in the State should be locked at the earliest, he said.
Janata Dal (United) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also echoed Mr. Kejriwal’s views that the special session of Parliament could indicate early polls. In fact, he has been making public statements speculating about the government preponing the elections for the last few months.
Common agenda
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee, sources said, spoke about the need to have a common agenda or manifesto, which she recommended should be unveiled on Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary on October 2 at Rajghat in Delhi. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M.K. Stalin also echoed the need to have a common agenda in place.
As per the publicised schedule, there is a plan to unveil a common INDIA logo; at Thursday’s dinner meet, there was no debate around this issue. The Left parties are not comfortable with using a common logo, which they feel will undermine their own individual position. Instead, the Left insisted that the time for discussions is long over and urged the parties to now hit the roads.
It is learnt that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge gave some sort of an assurance that the coordination committee, which will oversee the entire campaign, could be expanded to accommodate more parties. After the Bengaluru meeting last month, he had announced that the coordination committee would consist of 11 members drawn from the 11 leading Opposition parties.
According to the sources, nine more regional Opposition parties — three from Assam (Asom Jatiya Parishad, Rajor Dal, Anchalik Gan Manch), three from Uttar Pradesh, one from West Bengal and two others — have requested to join the bloc. This too will come up for debate on Friday.
