2024 Lok Sabha elections: NDA and UPA meetings, the fence sitters and non-attendees
Vibha Sharma
Chandigarh, July 17
Withn an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, leaders of the ruling BJP-led NDA and Congress and other opposition parties are holding key strategy/show-of-strength meetings.
The second “opposition unity meeting” is being convened by Congress in Bengaluru.Congress leaders say “26 parties” have extended support in the joint effort to take on the ruling BJP in the next elections.
The BJP too is holding a similar meeting with some new and some former allies like Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Chirag Paswan to strengthen the NDA on Tuesday.
NDA meeting
BJP president JP Nadda has invited allies, including those he has been reaching out to, for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Apart from Chirag Paswan, another former NDA ally, OP Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, is expected to attend the meeting.
Also present will be JSP chief and South superstar Pawan Kalyan, a new ally like Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the NCP faction of Ajit Pawar. There is also a strong buzz about a tie-up between Janata Dal (Secular) and BJP for 2024. However, according to reports, the Karnataka satrap is waiting for the outcome of the NDA meeting in Delhi to finalise its move.
Reports quoting BJP leaders suggested that “nearly 30 parties” will be there in Delhi to attend the meeting chaired by Nadda and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
However, not all parties in the NDA have a presence in the Parliament.
Bihar parties, Jitan Ram Manjhi of Hindustani Awam Morcha, Upendra Singh Kushwaha of the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, and Mukesh Sahani of the Vikassheel Insaan Party are among thoseinvited for meeting of the NDA which currently has around 24 parties, mostly small outfits from the northeast and south, along with AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) in Maharashtra.
UPA meeting
Opposition leaders are expected to discuss key issues, including the CMP and seat sharing “state-by-state”, say sources. Important decisions to take forth the discussions are also expected, like formation of committees and strategies to draft the CMP and other election and campaign programmes.
There is also speculation around the possibility of a new name for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the Congress-led alliance which ran the government at the Centre from 2004 to 2014 with senior leader Sonia Gandhi as the chairperson.
Congress is making all efforts to make it a success.
Ahead of the meeting, the party said it will oppose the ordinance on Delhi administrative services in Parliament—a condition put by the Aam Aadmi Party to attend the talks. Sources said TMC leader Mamata Banerjee “managed to broker peace for the sake of the alliance and unity.”
Calling the opposition meeting a “game changer for the Indian political scenario,” Congress leaders have been taking swipe at the BJP meeting, saying that those who talked of defeating the opposition parties alone are now making attempts to breathe new life into the NDA.
“Attempts are being made to breathe new life into the NDA. There used to be no talk about NDA and suddenly in the past few days, we are hearing and reading about it. Suddenly, it was reported that an NDA meeting has been called for tomorrow. So NDA, which had become a ghost, attempts are now being made to breathe a new life into it,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh was quoted as saying.
Fence-sitters/non-attendees
The success of a meeting depends upon the number of attendees and the outcome.
Notably, the 25 parties that attended the inauguration of the new parliament building amid boycott from opposition parties included some who are not from the NDA, like Biju Janata Dal (BJD), BSP, Shiromani Akali Dal, Janata Dal (Secular), Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and YSR Congress Party (YSRCP).
Of them, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik-led BJD has always maintained a distance from the opposition camp, backing the Modi government on several issues, likewise, Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress.
They are not expected at either the NDA or the UPA meeting.
N Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP and the Shiromani Akali Dal are also not expected to be there in Delhi. While the BJP is contemplating going solo in Punjab, in Andhra it may ally with Pawan Kalyan.
So far as Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, PM Modi’s sharp critic, is concerned he is not there with opposition in Bengaluru. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has slammed the opposition parties for not inviting KCR, calling them a “club of big Chaudharis who are not much different from the BJP”—comments that have raised questions about the feasibility of the entire opposition coming together under one umbrella.
The most interesting person to watch out for is NCP supremo Sharad Pawar.
Ahead of the meetings, interesting developments have been reported from Maharashtra—of late the hotbed of political action in the country.
According to reports, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and some other ministers from his NCP have met uncle Sharad Pawar. OnFriday, Ajit Pawar also visited his uncle’s residence to meet ailing aunt Pratibha Pawar, who reportedly played a key role in bringing him back to the NCP fold after he formed a rather short-lived government with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis after the 2019 Assembly elections.
