The Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday said they will not join an Opposition front without the Congress, a day after Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao called on his Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar in separate meetings in Mumbai.
Sunday’s meetings were seen as Rao’s efforts to forge an Opposition front of like-minded parties to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 general elections. While KCR, as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief is popularly known as, called on the chiefs of Shiv Sena and NCP on Thackeray’s invitation, he did not meet anyone from the Congress.
The Sena and NCP — constituents of the Maharashtra’s ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government along with the Congress — have maintained that no “non-Congress opposition front” could be fruitful against the BJP in 2024.
Senior Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Monday said attempts to stitch up a Third Front in the past have not been successful in the country.
“We have never said there would be a front without the Congress. When West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee first mentioned this (a front without the Congress), Shiv Sena was the first party to say that the Congress should be taken along with the others,” Raut told reporters in Nagpur, while dismissing any discussions regarding formation of a non-Congress front during the meeting between Thackeray and KCR.
“This country has not seen a third or a fourth front becoming successful, so one must not use these terms. These fronts are spoken of when elections are around the corner,” Raut added.
He said that key Opposition leaders are likely to huddle together soon to outline the roadmap for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and praised KCR’s efforts towards it. “K Chandrasekhar Rao is a very hard-working leader. He faced a lot of struggles in his political life. He has the ability to lead… Soon, I think the two leaders (Thackeray and KCR) along with other key leaders will meet.”
NCP chief spokesperson Nawab Malik said the process to form a strong alternative along with Congress has been started.
“Pawar sahab has been insisting upon the need for a comprehensive front of non-BJP parties along with Congress, which can be brought as an alternative before the people ahead of 2024 general elections. We believe the process has been started; a strong front will come into being and oust the BJP from power,” Malik, a minister in the MVA government, said.
“We want the Congress to be part of it and we have been saying this repeatedly,” Malik said, when asked if the Congress would be part of their alliance.
Political analyst Surendra Jondhale said the churn that has begun in the Opposition camp is to signal the Congress to “fall in line”.
“The leadership in the Congress is fragmented and the organisation is directionless but the Congress is still a pan-India phenomenon, which is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi still targets it so regularly. Besides, the regional parties are starting to huddle with two years for general elections. This (coming together of regional parties) is a message to the Congress to sort their issues. No front without the Congress will be successful. However, leadership of this front with Congress could become a sticking point for all these parties,” said Jondhale, a former professor of political science at the University of Mumbai.
The BJP said such experiments had been carried out in the past and failed.
“Earlier too, these leaders had come together (to take on the BJP) ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. However, nothing came out of it. Such experiments (of unity of non-BJP parties) had been done in the past in several states but there was no effect,” former Maharashtra chief minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis told reporters in Aurangabad.
(With inputs from agencies)