Unity in Opposition ranks remains elusive

Zoya Hasan

Professor Emerita, JNU

Anti-Congressism emerged as a successful strategy for political parties to coalesce together to defeat the Congress in the 1977 and 1989 Lok Sabha elections and helped them forge a coalition government from 1996 to 1998. Various parties — from the Left to the Right — joined hands in this endeavour to outmanoeuvre the Congress.

But, paradoxically, anti-Congressism has persisted even after the Congress has been decimated. It has been kept alive by the BJP to discredit and demolish the Congress by its constant reference to the Emergency and the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. The BJP refers to it stridently even now, although its appeal is questionable, given that the ruling party is the pivot of the political system. However, its continued relevance for the BJP is linked to two core elements that characterise the politics of the Hindu Right — a majoritarian approach to democracy and in consequence the shrinking space for democracy, civil society and the Opposition, besides the exclusionary rhetoric of nation and nationalism which puts the Opposition on the defensive.

Successive electoral defeats have increased the urgency for the non-BJP Opposition to cobble up a united front or state-level alliances ahead of the 2024 General Election. The Opposition is aware that only alliances can contain an expansionist BJP. Yet, unity in the Opposition ranks remains elusive. It faces numerous problems — trust deficit, political calculations combined with coercion through defections and fear of Central agencies. Some regional parties are breakaways from the Congress, which they see as a rival, if not an enemy.

Notably, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress (YSR Congress) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are unwilling to join forces with the Congress nationally because they continue to be bitter rivals in states and because of the prime ministerial ambitions of their own leaders, among other factors. But no Opposition front is feasible without it, and no Opposition party, including the Congress, alone can defeat the BJP. That’s the main challenge confronting the Opposition politics today.

The BJP’s strategy is to not let any such alliance emerge, and to break it wherever it evolves. It is working overtime to keep the Opposition divided, while at the same time using Central agencies to weaken or intimidate the Opposition. Corruption charges have been brazenly used to tarnish the Opposition. Several Opposition leaders are under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the Income Tax authorities. Several of them are in jail or have spent time in jail. But even then Opposition parties are reluctant to unite.

Political leadership of the bloc and aligning with the Congress are the sticking points, apart from the palpable fear of investigative agencies. But realistically speaking, the Congress is the only party with a national footprint and hence has to be the pole around which Opposition unity can be built. Barring the Congress, most Opposition parties are single-state parties; they cannot be the fulcrum of an anti-BJP alliance in the General Election.

Majoritarianism and the decline of democratic practices should unite the Opposition, but, in fact, the reverse has happened. Anti-BJPism has proved to be a much more difficult proposition than the strategy of anti-Congressism pursued by these parties in the recent past. Basically, regional and state parties are not driven by ideological opposition to the BJP; they oppose it primarily to safeguard their own political turf from encroachment by the BJP. In fact, the main reason they oppose the BJP is to stop its expansionist drive which can erode their social base, and not a genuine opposition to the ideas represented by the communal-authoritarian regime.

Accordingly, they prioritise their state-level interests over national issues, which make it difficult for them to unite with national-level Opposition parties. Unlike the Congress and Left parties, which have steadfastly opposed the BJP ideologically, state parties haven’t done so, which is a major impediment to evolving and popularising a long-term counter-narrative in national politics. In the past, many of these parties have aligned with the BJP or NDA. The TMC, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Janata Dal (Secular) are cases in point.

Also, a perception has been assiduously built up with the help of a section of the media that the BJP is unbeatable. This perception has demoralised the Opposition, making it difficult for the parties to unite with a sense of purpose and confidence. The BJP constantly makes the claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi enjoys the support of 140 crore people. The fact that the ruling party had a vote share of 37.4 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls is conveniently forgotten. This indicates that there is no countrywide acceptability of the BJP as the dominant hegemonic force, which should actually encourage non-BJP parties to seriously engage with and oppose its ideological agenda. But the failure to do so indicates that not enough attention has been paid to the electoral collapse of the Opposition parties and what the dominance of the BJP means for them, and the grave consequences of majoritarianism for the nation, the state and the Opposition.

Forging Opposition unity against the BJP is a complicated and challenging task that requires overcoming multiple obstacles. The BJP has a formidable combination of forces on its side, including massive money and executive power, and a widely popular leader at the helm. The unrelenting intimidation of the Opposition parties by the ruling party provides an opportunity for them to create a joint front for their collective survival. Conversely, Opposition parties will prove to be ‘useful’ for the BJP if they refuse to unite owing to their antipathy to the Congress. But the political landscape in India is complex and dynamic; it can shift rapidly depending on a variety of factors, including state-level alliances, which, too, can impact the outcome of the next Lok Sabha elections.

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