Success is when adversity turns into an advantage. Consider how the splintered Opposition is uniting at the national level following surprise outcomes in the April-May assembly polls in five states. Those in the Opposition who were bent on undercutting unity and charting an independent course are now a chastened lot. When the INDIA bloc sent a letter to the Chief Justice of India this week, appealing to the judiciary’s conscience regarding the BJP’s attempt to steamroll them through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, its signatories included the AAP and the DMK – two parties that had stayed away from the opposition meeting in New Delhi on June 8. Some 24 parties signed the letter, reflecting the collective will of the entire Opposition in this country.
This unity, after years of mutual wrangling, is made possible by the disastrous defeat of the Trinamool Congress in Bengal, the DMK in Tamil Nadu and the AAP in Delhi. Better sense now prevails among the leaders of these parties. While the DMK was a part of the INDIA bloc and stood solidly with the Congress at the national level, it had avoided attending the June 8 meeting of the bloc. MK Stalin was piqued with Congress over its association with the new political power in Tamil Nadu, the TVK led by Chief Minister Joseph Vijay. However, the DMK has realized it has no option but to continue with the INDIA bloc, as the party is ideologically poles apart from the BJP. For Kejriwal, the loss of AAP’s home turf Delhi to the BJP was a huge disaster. Yet, the AAP was in no mood to join hands with the Congress. However, it notices that the national political scenario has seen a significant transformation after the five-state assembly polls. The Congress emerged stronger with the electoral win in Kerala – the third state in the South it now governs. The slogan of a Congress-Mukht Bharat is a far cry some 12 years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised it at the height of an electoral win for the BJP in 2014. The likes of Mamata Banerjee, who had refused to break bread with Rahul Gandhi, now crawled her way to Delhi to add punch to the INDIA bloc she sought to undermine in the past.
Here now is a rare political configuration. The entire opposition is in a mood to take on the ruling BJP at the Centre and in states in a spirit of newfound unity. This had not been the case all through the last 12 years, when the BJP and the prime minister relished the mutual recriminations in the rival political camp. Situations conspired to bring the Opposition together and give democracy a new strength. The huge electoral defeats, followed by the string of defections to the BJP, sent out the right signals to the regional satraps. The resultant opposition unity will pose a stronger challenge to the government in the Monsoon session of Parliament.
