Congress is the elephant in opposition room

Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra has given the Congress a shot in the arm and has resurrected the national party’s electoral fortunes in the anti-BJP space

Like it or not, the Indian National Congress is the elephant in the opposition room. Manoeuvre in the opposition camp for unity can succeed only if the Congress is on board, or it is given its due. The Congress has renewed its political prominence ever since the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY) caught the nation’s attention, and stunned both detractors and admirers alike.

Though the grand old party has been out in the cold for long, its relevance is reflected with the BJP continuing to focus on it, often repeating its resolve for a “Congress-mukt Bharat”.

What is unsettling for the BJP is that despite it continuously targeting Gandhi, and the Congress being trashed at the hustings twice (2014 and 2019) at the national level, the Bharat Jodo Yatra has managed to strike a chord with many across the nation by highlighting the real problems the average citizen is facing.

The BJP’s attempt to discredit the yatra, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s near silence on it itself speaks volumes. Without taking names, Modi had perhaps taken a jibe at the yatra saying that those who were thrown out of power were taking a yatra to get back to power.

The new-found optimism in Gandhi’s leadership in a section of the opposition camp was reflected in Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s assertion that Gandhi could bring the opposition parties together.

However, not everyone in the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) political space is impressed. For example, Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is yet to comment on the yatra. Late last year, Gandhi accused Bharat Rashtra Samithi chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao of “taking orders from Modi”. Opposition unity without these two leaders is precarious.

The BJY has also set the cat among the pigeons as far as regional parties are concerned. Take Uttar Pradesh, for example. Both Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)’s Mayawati welcomed the yatra, but did not join it in its UP leg. It could be because both the SP and the BSP could lose if the Congress was to revive in the Hindi heartland state.

In neighbouring Delhi, it is difficult to see the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) joining hands with the Congress, never mind the two have in the past. AAP has been expanding outside Delhi, in Punjab where it has formed the government, and has made an impact in the recently-held Gujarat polls. This has been largely done at the expense of the Congress in these states.

In Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is among those vocal about a Congress-led opposition alliance to take on the BJP at the national level. For 71-year-old socialist leader, it is a win-win situation as his strategy would enthuse the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), his alliance partner back home.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra comprising the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray, the NCP, and the Congress look like a miniature version of the proposed anti-BJP alliance at the national level.

Gandhi has made it clear that if the Opposition stands effectively with a vision, it would be very difficult for the BJP to win the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. His assertion, however, that the Congress alone provides the central ideological framework among opposition forces is a bitter pill for regional parties to swallow. Unlike the Congress most regional parties have joined hands with the BJP at some point in the past—this gives the national party a moral authority to be the first among equals in the Opposition.

(Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari are both senior journalists.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.