21 parties at Oppn meet, chant ‘defeat BJP in 2019, save India’

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 10

“Defeat BJP, save India, save democracy” was the collective chant of Opposition parties that assembled here today in a massive show of strength to plan a joint strategy for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Twenty-one parties attended the meeting led by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi and facilitated by TDP president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, and resolved to develop an action plan for the next General Election.

The absence of Uttar Pradesh’s regional players Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party, however, took some zing away from the “united Opposition” meet, forcing Rahul Gandhi to term today’s effort as “part of a process”. UP sends the maximum 80 members to the Lok Sabha and BSP and SP remain key to any potential anti-BJP alliance for 2019.

“The voices in the room today are the voices of opposition in the country and we respect every single one of them, regardless of how big or small they are. The goal of everybody here is to defeat BJP and protect India’s Constitution and our institutions,” Gandhi said when asked why the Mayawati-led BSP and Akhilesh Yadav-led SP skipped the meeting.

A new entrant was the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party whose leaders told the gathering that everyone must rise above political differences to “save India”. Kejriwal’s remarks signalled early possibilities of an AAP-Congress tango in Delhi in 2019.

Overall, Opposition titans Sonia Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, DMK president MK Stalin and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the BJP must be defeated to “save India’s institutions”.

The participants also decided to petition President Ram Nath Kovind over what Banerjee called was a “political and financial emergency”. The decision came half-way through the meeting as the news of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel quitting broke.

Speaking on everyone’s behalf later, Rahul Gandhi said, “We had a very productive meet and in the middle of the meeting, we were told that the BJP-RSS agenda was progressing further and that the RBI chief has resigned because he can no longer work with the Government… There was consensus that we have to stop BJP’s assault on our institutions, stop the assault on the CBI, the RBI, the Election Commission (EC), on all institutions, assault on the Constitution. There was consensus that BJP’s corruption on Rafale aircraft deal, demonetisation and other areas is simply not acceptable and we are going to fight it…”

Naidu, who arranged the event, described the coming together of a larger Opposition as a “democratic compulsion to save India”, citing “BJP’s assault on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the RBI”. Opposition leaders, including Tejashwi Yadav, the son of jailed RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav, also agreed that the BJP was “misusing probe agencies to fix political rivals”.  

Though the Opposition reacted strongly to Patel’s resignation, Rahul Gandhi’s response to the news of Vijay Mallya’s extradition was lukewarm. “It is not a major victory. The question is farmers are committing suicide almost every day. They don’t have access to the Indian banking system. Vijay Mallya stole over Rs 9,000 crore. Mr Nirav Modi stole Rs 35,000 crore… So it is not a question of Vijay Mallya being extradited. It is a question of the Indian banking system being handed over to Mr Modi’s friends. It is called crony capitalism. And if you want to talk corruption, why not talk about Rafale deal?” Rahul Gandhi asked.

The parties will meet again tomorrow to decide on which issues to petition the President.

EVM malfunctioning

The gathering also discussed EVM malfunctioning on the eve of results to five state elections with a joint statement saying, “Innumerable deficiencies, failures and plausible doubts on the neutral functioning of EVMs per se have raised a question on the neutrality of poll process itself. This needs to be redressed without question and without delay.”

PARTICIPANTS

Congress, NCP, AITC, TDP, JDS, CPM, NC, LJD, RJD, DMK, JMM, RLD, CPI, Kerala Congress, HAM, JVM, IUML, AIUDF, AAP, Naga People's Front and RSP

Carrying it forward

This is a process which is bringing together everyone. And this is going to be carried forward in an open, friendly, respectful manner. Rahul Gandhi, Congress President