ALL FOR ALLIANCE

Opposition parties seek flexibility to defeat a common enemy

- SONI MISHRA

The air in Patna was thick with pre-monsoon moisture and a buzz about a meeting that could heavily impact next year’s Lok Sabha elections. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who played host at his 1 Anne Marg residence, had posters of several opposition party leaders put up throughout the city. The party units themselves put up banners welcoming their leaders; the BJP had posters deriding the alliance effort.

One such banner outside the Janata Dal (United) headquarters said, “Aagaaz hua hai, badlaav hoga (A beginning has been made; there will be change).” It aptly captured the message the participants wanted to convey.

With less than a year to go for the national elections, top leaders of 15 political parties got into a huddle on June 23. It was the first such meeting of the anti-BJP bloc to work out a joint strategy against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It lasted nearly four hours.

Chief ministers, former chief ministers and regional stalwarts were among the 32 leaders at the meeting. The predominant sentiment was bonhomie and regard, even though there was a brief altercation between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party over a Central ordinance. The aim of the meeting, as Nitish said right at the outset, was not to discuss a joint programme, but to assert that the parties were ready to come together for the big fight.

Patna was chosen as the venue because some parties were uneasy attending a meeting that the Congress, their political rival, would convene. It also gave the parties reason to recall that Patna was where earlier jan andolans had started. The reference was to Jayaprakash Narayan’s movement in the 1970s against the Indira Gandhi government; it had brought disparate parties together under a common Janata Party banner.