Contradictions in the INDIA opposition block has come to the fore with Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday alleging that some “Congress leaders are siding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)”. He also went on to add that he would not have trusted the Congress if he had known that it would ditch him and his party.
This difference and conflict is just a beginning and with each elections coming INDI Alliance way, many other parties will express their dismay and disenchantment with the Congress, as it is an established fact that in alliance politics there is no place for playing big brother’s role, which the grand old party is trying to do.
Another truth is that alliance politics succeeds only in a situation where there is an absence of a strong leader and fragmentation of forces in the polity at large.
In the first scenario, if a strong leader is there, the opposition alliance partners have to merge with each other leaving their ideology and their lust for their respective individual power to take on the ruling dispensation. This had happened during struggle for power between 1975-77, when all the socialists and the BJP merged to form Janata Party to take on then strong Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In the present situation Indira Gandhi’s role is being played by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and if the INDI Alliance partners have to throw a credible challenge, they have no option but to leave their ideology and petty interest.
The second scenario emerged between 1989 and 1996, where India polity largely remained fragmented, there was a complete absence of a strong pan-India leader. Under circumstances National Democratic Alliance (NDA) under the leadership of BJP’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The alliance had then come together to come to power and not to defeat any strong leader. So it was an alliance for sharing power and thus it succeeded.
INDI Alliance faces a piquant situation in which one of the major partner SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, claimed that he was unaware of the fact that the INDIA bloc has been formed at the national level to defeat the BJP and the alliance partners are not fighting together at the state level.
While responding to media queries, Yadav appeared angry over Congress Uttar Pradesh chief Ajay Rai’s statement that if Congress had fought Ghosi, they (SP) might have lost the seat.
“The state chief has no authority. He was not there in the meeting held at Patna, Mumbai. What does he know about the INDIA alliance?… These people from Congress are siding or involved with the BJP,” the SP leader alleged while talking to reporters in Sitapur.
SP chief further said that he would not have trusted them if he had known that people from Congress would betray us. “If I had known that the alliance is not on the state level then I would not have sent SP leaders to Digvijaya Singh…I would not have trusted them if I had known that people from Congress would betray us,” he added.
The Congress’s UP unit chief Ajay Rai has asked the SP to withdraw from the poll-bound MP in favour of the grand old party as the Akhilesh Yadav-led party, he said, did not have any base there.
On Tuesday, while speaking to reporters about the allocation of seats in the INDIA alliance in Madhya Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav said that the Congress party should clarify who will get how many seats in the alliance and whether the alliance will be at a national level or on a state level.
Meanwhile, the SP has released its second list of candidates for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh assembly polls, according to an official statement issued by the party on Wednesday. The party has declared the names of a total of 22 candidates in the second list.
Madhya Pradesh is one of the five states set to hold elections this year. The state is scheduled to vote on November 17, with the vote count taking place on December 3. Voters will choose legislators from 230 Assembly constituencies.
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