Mumbai: The Modi government’s decision to form a committee to explore ‘One Nation, One Election’ is said to have pushed the Opposition’s INDIA alliance to get into action mode and set up internal committees for poll preparation.
The INDIA alliance of 28 parties from across the country had its third meeting in Mumbai this week — the first two were in Patna and Bengaluru — to discuss how best to come together and put up a front against the ruling BJP and its allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
While senior leaders from INDIA’s constituent parties were expecting to discuss a common minimum programme and a coordination committee, and initial talks on seat-sharing, many did not think these discussions would result in concrete steps right away, multiple leaders from the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) told ThePrint.
A senior Congress leader who attended the INDIA alliance meeting in Mumbai over Thursday and Friday told ThePrint, “The ‘One Nation, One Election’ committee set off some panic among the parties that attended the meeting. There were concerns that this might mean the Lok Sabha elections could be called in just a few months, and there was a general consensus that the alliance needs to get ready as soon as possible.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has in the past repeatedly endorsed the idea of having simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections. On Thursday, his government announced a special session of Parliament from 18 to 22 September, and Friday, it formed a committee under the chairmanship of former President Ram Nath Kovind to examine the ‘One Nation, One Election’ idea.
The Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to be held in April-May 2024.
The INDIA alliance Friday announced a 14-member coordination committee as well as a separate 19-member campaign committee. It also formed three working groups — one for social media, one for handling traditional media, and one for research.
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The coordination committee
The INDIA alliance’s coordination committee has a sitting chief minister, Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren, and two heads of parties — NCP’s Sharad Pawar, and Mehbooba Mufti of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
All other parties represented in the coordination committee — such as the Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Trinamool Congress (TMC), Samajwadi Party (SP), Janata Dal (United), National Conference (NC), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) — have the lieutenants of the party chiefs on the panel.
Sources present at the meeting said the idea was that sitting CMs will stay out of the panel. This panel will also work on election strategy.
The INDIA alliance avoided appointing a convenor at the Mumbai meet.
“There was discussion on whether the convenor’s role would be that of a chairperson or more secretarial in nature, involving calling for meetings, setting agenda etc. It was decided that the coordination committee can take up this work,” said a source.
Seat-sharing
The INDIA alliance passed three resolutions at its Mumbai meeting. One, that the alliance will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections unitedly “as far as possible”, and that seat-sharing discussions will start at the state-level immediately. In the same breath, the parties also vowed to adjust and concede to some “give-and-take” if necessary.
The above-mentioned Congress leader said, “The term ‘as far as possible’ has been used because our focus is to not field more than one consensus candidate on seats where the BJP may benefit by doing such a thing. In places where the BJP is anyway not strong, such as in Kerala, there is a possibility that parties in the INDIA alliance might field their own candidates.”
The other two resolutions passed in the Mumbai meet include hitting the ground running in a united campaign by holding public rallies on important issues across the country, and coming up with a tagline for the campaign, ‘Judega Bharat, Jitega India’.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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