By Yashwant Sinha,
A representative leadership and small compromises in the larger interest can help regional parties come together against the BJP in the Lok Sabha election. And the Congress needs to be taken on board.
In today’s political scenario, even as the Congress has shrunk and the BJP has expanded its footprint, a number of regional parties have come up in various parts of the country, from north to south, east to west.
The Congress is still a dominant force in some states, such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and others. But there are many states where regional parties have replaced the Congress to assume leadership. These parties are either in office or form the main opposition in these states.
In such a situation, what should be the formula on which the opposition can come together to fight the BJP in 2019? I have some suggestions for the opposition that can be implemented to oust the BJP from the Centre.
1. Contrary to the suggestion of some regional leaders that the coalition be a non-Congress, non-BJP one, my formula is that it should be purely non-BJP, with the Congress taken on board.
2. In every state, the dominant political party should be given the leadership. For example, in Uttar Pradesh, there are Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati, and in Bihar it is Lalu Prasad. In states where the Congress is the dominant party, it should be given the leadership.
3. Once it is so recognised, it should be the responsibility of the dominant party to accommodate smaller partners. For example, in West Bengal, Mamata should accommodate the Congress. In Punjab and Delhi, the Congress should recognise the AAP. In MP, the Congress should recognise the BSP and the SP, or whoever is there.
The dominant party must be ready to accommodate non-dominant partners with a presence in the state. Like in UP, Mayawati and Akhilesh have come together to give Kairana to the RLD. There are other smaller parties in UP too, like the Apna Dal, the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, the Nishad Party, as there are in Bihar and other states too. If they are prepared to join the alliance, they should be recognised and given their due.
4. There should be a collective leadership, which is not difficult to establish. The heads of all the constituent parties should form a collective leadership, which should then take decisions. There shouldn’t be a pre-eminent leader.
The BJP’s game is to make 2019 a presidential-style election, as it was in 2014, and they will pitch the question, “Who against Modi?”, time and again. The opposition shouldn’t fall into this trap. Modi mudda nahi hai, mudde mudda hain (Modi is not the issue; the issues are the issue). At no point should Modi get a chance to pitch the election as ‘him vs others’. The opposition leaders should shun personal attacks on Modi, and even any reference to him. There are plenty of issues like fuel prices on which the collective leadership can organise protests and movements to have an impact on people’s mind.
5. After some time, this grouping should have an office or secretariat for the purpose of information-sharing and better co-ordination among the constituents.
6. Seat allocation would be the most difficult thing, even after everyone comes together. Everyone should approach it with a liberal mind and accommodative spirit. The smaller parties should realise that it is better to contest 10 seats and win five or seven than contesting 50 and winning none.
7. There should be only one candidate against the BJP in every seat. But suppose, for whatever reason, it is not possible to do so on 30-odd seats out of 543, then they shouldn’t break the alliance in the remaining seats for the sake of those 30. If possible, they should have a friendly fight in these 30 seats.
8. Regional parties must form a pre-poll alliance, and it is not a difficult task. Mamata Banerjee has no interest in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and, likewise, the regional parties in the two states have no interest in West Bengal or Tamil Nadu. So, they can come together and form this pre-poll alliance. The Congress may also join in if it feels the need.
I have a reason for suggesting such a pre-poll alliance. Suppose a Karnataka-like situation comes up after 2019, where the BJP remains the single largest party despite missing the majority by a long shot. The convention of calling the single largest party to form the government is much stronger at the Centre, as we saw in 1996, when the BJP was called in. If there is no pre-poll alliance, the President would be well within his rights to call the BJP to form the government. I see a danger here as Modi is no Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Suppose the President says, seek a vote of confidence in 15 days. If the Lok Sabha is convened and, as happened with the opposition’s no-confidence motion in the last Parliament session, the confidence motion doesn’t come up because of disruptions in the house, another 15 days might be granted for the vote.
Another possibility is that the speaker may announce that the BJP has won the vote of confidence by voice vote. This has happened in the past and might happen in the future. The most important thing is that something that happens during the proceedings of the house can’t be challenged in court. Therefore, a pre-poll alliance as wide as possible should be formed.
9. It should be a programme-based coalition, and not one based entirely on arithmetic. The parties should come together on more than a common minimum programme. I am saying this because the country is in need of a new direction, and that direction must be clearly spelt out in the programme. It is the programme that will hold the coalition together. In the past, such coalitions have failed only because they didn’t have a programme. The important question of leadership may be decided after the election.
This formula can help the opposition forge a worthwhile coalition that can take on the BJP.
The author, a former union minister and long-time BJP member, quit the party this year and now leads a political action group called the Rashtra Manch
(Source: theprint.in)