New Delhi: Even as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has made a pitch for a united Opposition against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the party presently shares an uneasy relationship with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
AAP’s National Convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is yet to be granted time with him and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to discuss the central government’s ordinance related to transfer and appointment of officers in Delhi.
Kejriwal is meeting Opposition leaders across the country to seek their support to stall the bill in the Rajya Sabha where the BJP needs the support of regional parties. The party will likely face no hurdles in the Lok Sabha during the monsoon session of Parliament.
The Delhi CM, while meeting his Tamil Nadu counterpart M.K. Stalin in Chennai Thursday, said he was yet to get time from the Congress. A week ago, he had tweeted how he had sought time with Kharge and Gandhi.
“I’m very confident that Congress should support this. There is no reason why Congress will not support it, because it is undemocratic and against the federal structure,” Kejriwal said in Chennai.
The Congress has, however, kept Kejriwal waiting. This has cast a shadow on the Opposition meet to be chaired by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar in Patna on 12 June.
Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Thursday also indicated its reluctance to attend the 12 June meeting. BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao said his party didn’t believe in uniting the Opposition to fight one man or to dislodge one party from power.
Meanwhile, the Congress is also upset with the TMC after its lone MLA in West Bengal assembly, Bayron Biswas, jumped ship. The Sagardighi MLA joined the TMC Monday.
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Ordinance dilemma
This Wednesday, Congress leader from Delhi, Sandeep Dikshit, said that he supported the ordinance. “I’m shocked that the big leaders Kejriwal is going to don’t understand the difference between a Union Territory and a state…So, all the leaders who are standing with Kejriwal, I will request them to consider that the provisions of Delhi are not like that of other states,” he said.
#WATCH | I support the ordinance against the Delhi government. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal is very well aware that if he does not get control of the vigilance department, he will be sent to jail for at least 8-10 years: Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit pic.twitter.com/MMdZyAZ4BB
— ANI (@ANI) May 31, 2023
Kharge and Gandhi met party leaders of the Delhi and Punjab Congress units Monday. According to party sources, both leaders told the high command that the Congress should not be seen supporting Kejriwal on the ordinance issue.
Further, former Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken is learnt to have reminded the high command that Kejriwal supported the abrogation of Article 370 and has consistently targeted the Congress. A suggestion was floated to remain silent on the issue and not show either support or opposition to the ordinance, ThePrint has learnt.
A senior AICC leader, on condition of anonymity, told ThePrint that the Congress’ equation with AAP was a “work in progress” and the party’s parliamentary strategy, when the ordinance will be introduced, has not been decided yet.
The leader also asserted that Kejriwal and the AAP’s predicament were their own doing and a governance failure. The leader gave the example of former Delhi CM from the Congress, Sheila Dikshit.
“Sheila Dikshit ran the Delhi government for four years while the BJP led the central government. She dealt with an L-G appointed by (PM) Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But things never came to this,” the leader said.
“AAP has a governance problem and they expect us to bail them out of it,” he added.
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Problems with the TMC
Sole Congress MLA in the West Bengal assembly, Bayron Biswas, left the party for the TMC Monday. Biswas had recently won the Sagardighi assembly bypoll in Bengal, beating the candidate from the ruling TMC and finding the Congress a foothold into the state assembly.
The party hasn’t taken kindly to the TMC’s move to induct Biswas. Congress general secretary in-charge for communications, Jairam Ramesh tweeted Tuesday, “Three months after he was elected as a Congress MLA in a historic victory, Bayron Biswas has been lured away by the TMC in West Bengal.”
Calling it a “complete betrayal of the mandate of the people”, he said, “Such poaching which has happened earlier in Goa, Meghalaya, Tripura and other states is not designed to strengthen Opposition unity and only serves the BJP’s objectives.”
Biswas reportedly claimed that he joined the TMC as he could not work for the people while with the Congress.
Congress leaders from Bengal said Biswas’ move has demotivated the party’s cadre which had got a boost with the Sagardighi win.
“If the Trinamool does not let one Congress MLA survive in the assembly, it means that they plan to wipe out the Congress from West Bengal. Why then should we ally with them in the state?” a Bengal Congress leader said to ThePrint on the phone on the condition of anonymity.
West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, has been unrelenting in his criticism of Mamata Banerjee. He termed the move as ‘horse trading’.
“Bayron cannot blame Congress. Our workers worked hard for Biswas’ victory. He was being pressured by the TMC for the last three months,” Chowdhury said, according to media reports.
The AICC leader quoted earlier said, “Mamata wants a mahagathbandhan. She wants to give the Congress only one seat (in the Lok Sabha polls) in such a situation. That situation is not tenable for us.”
Meanwhile, Mamata has distanced herself from Biswas’ move saying in a press conference in Kolkata that she learnt about it “from the papers”.
“Ask the local party unit. I have no information about this. I read about it in the papers. I don’t do all this…The block level does this,” she was quoted on social media as saying Tuesday.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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