Opposition Conclave At Patna Achieved Success Due To Astute Handling By Nitish Kumar

The air in Patna was thick with pre-monsoon moisture and a buzz about a meeting that could heavily impact next year’s Lok Sabha elections. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who played host at his 1 Anne Marg residence, had posters of several opposition party leaders put up throughout the city. The party units themselves put up banners welcoming their leaders; the BJP had organized protest deriding the alliance effort.

One such banner outside the Janata Dal (United) headquarters said “Aagaaz hua badlaav hoga (A beginning has been made; there will be change). It aptly captured the message the participants wanted to convey.

With just eight months to go for the general elections, top leaders of 15 political parties got into a huddle on June 23. It was first such meeting of the anti-BJP bloc to work out a joint strategy against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. it lasted nearly four hours.

Chief ministers, former chief ministers and regional stalwarts were among the 32 leaders at the meeting. The prominent sentiment was bonhomie and regard, even though there was brief altercation between the Congress and the Aam Admi party over a central ordinance. The aim of the meeting, as Nitish Kumar said right at the outset, was not to discuss a joint program, but to assert that the parties were ready to come together for a big fight.

Patna was chosen as the venue because some parties were uneasy attending a meeting that the Congress, their political rival, would convene. It also gave the parties reason to recall that Patna was where earlier Jan Andolans had started. The reference was to Jayaprakash Narayan’s movement in the 1970s against Indira Gandhi government; it had brought disparate parties together under a common banner.

“There is consensus on fighting the election together”, Nitish Kumar said after the meeting, “Who will fight where will be decided in a meeting that will be held soon. But we have all agreed to be together”.

Nitish has criss-crossed the county in the past few months, meeting leaders of various parties in an effort to build a common platform. Going by the optics, he has been successful – top leaders of the Trinamool Congress and the Left, and the Congress and AAP, staunch rivals otherwise, united in the same room.

Freed from the need to get into issues that such as sharing seats, the leaders went out of their way to come across as accommodating. After hosts Nitish and Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad spoke, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge was called upon to speak. The Congress was after all, the largest party in the bloc. Kharge, however, reportedly said that his party would like to listen and speak at the end. The others appreciated this gesture.

Sources said that Kharge and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal got into an argument over the ordinance, with the latter insisting that the Congress publicly state its stand on the issue the same day. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stepped in as referee, suggesting that the two leaders, discuss the matter separately over a cup of tea. She reportedly said Kharge had already promised that his party would not support anything unconstitutional. The Patna gathering, she said, was to look at issues of greater national importance. Rahul Gandhi, it said, appreciated her intervention.

There was apparently no discussion on who the convener of the grouping would be; there had been speculation that the role would go to Nitish Kumar.

Rahul, reportedly, said he had come to Patna with a clean slate and was not hanging on past likes or dislikes. He also spoke of the need to be flexible in the face of inherent differences.

Kejriwal also stressed on the need for united fight. He apparently said that there should be a one-on-one fight, and the nation came first and party second. (IPA Service)