Nitish's Opposition
unity game-plan
Field Common candidate
in 400 LS seats against BJP
Bihar
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is evolving a new formula of Opposition unity as
many regional parties are opposed to having any truck with the Congress. He has
conveyed to leaders with whom he has interacted so far that without Congress,
there can be no unity.
Nitish
Kumar's plan is fielding common Opposition candidates against the BJP in 400
Lok Sabha seats. There could be seat adjustments if not an alliance. In the
remaining seats there could be “friendly fights”.
The
BJP was able to win 300 plus seats in 2019 polls largely because the Opposition
was fragmented. The BJP achieved this feat even when it could not make a mark
in many big states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and others.
The
Opposition parties must avoid multi-corner contests. For example, the Congress
had contested around 475 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 and could win 52 seats only.
There are around 220 Lok Sabha seats where Congress is the main challenger to
the BJP.
The
Congress has allies in Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Assam etc
even as talks with SP, JD (S) and other parties are continuing. The Left
parties and the Congress have been fighting against each other in Kerala and
sharing the booty. But there are many like K Chandrashekhar Rao in Telangana,
Mamata Bannerjee in West Bengal and Naveen Patnaik in Odisha who are against
any truck with the Congress.
The
Bahujan Samaj Party Chief Mayawati and AAP's Arvind Kejriwal have been going
solo in the past and bringing them around will be a tough task.
Nitish
Kumar will have a tough task in evolving a workable formula in many such
states. But sources close to him say that working unity can be achieved on 400
Lok Sabha seats.
