The massive rally of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance in Mumbai on March 17 and in Patna on March 3 exploded the media-created myth that only the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party can display such a show of strength in the post-2014 era. What is most alarming for the ruling party is that these two mobilizations had taken place when the Congress, Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal—the main organizers– were not only out of power but had been deprived of all the resources. Apart from this all these four parties had either faced split or desertion.
The Patna rally smashed the image created by the Fourth Estate that RJD’s Lalu Prasad had always organized such huge rallies when he had been in power and that he used to misuse his authority. But when such a huge crowd turned up in Patna only on 10 days’ notice it took everybody by complete surprise. The Mumbai rally was equally well-disciplined.
Strong message
Many journalists who always shower praise on the BJP and RSS cadres for organizing huge gatherings were taken aback by the opposition’s inherent strength notwithstanding such an odd situation and witch-hunting. Patna and Mumbai are not the capital of the states where any of the opposition parties are in power. The INDIA constituents succeeded in sending a very strong message that they are united and mean business. There is no room for them to be taken lightly by the ruling National Democratic Alliance or the media.
The coming together of these leaders means that in 350 out of 543 Lok Sabha seats the INDIA constituents are putting a common candidate against the NDA.
Besides, there are friendly fights in Kerala and Punjab while in West Bengal the situation is somewhat different.
That was largely because of the obstinacy shown by the Trinamool Congress leader and state chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
She should have learnt a lesson from the DMK which once again left nine seats for the Congress in Tamil Nadu and the lone seat of Puducherry. Last time too the Congress contested on nine seats and won on eight. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election the DMK left as high as 15 seats for the Congress when the fact is that the Grand Old Party had not come to power in Tamil Nadu since 1967.
In contrast, Congress was a much stronger party in West Bengal till a few years ago. Mamata herself broke away from it more than a quarter century back. It was the TMC-Congress alliance that came to power for the first time in 2011. She parted ways after consolidating her position. Congress stalwarts like the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who later became the President of India, were always in favour of an alliance with her. But some other leaders of his party were perhaps not so inclined to this line.
As the larger objective of alliance and the bigger goal of fighting the common rival at the national level are kept in mind the regional parties give concessions to the national party. The Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar too has always been generous towards the Congress. But, the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh was not so large-hearted and sealed the alliance with the Congress after much bargaining. The latter had only 17 seats.
Ironically, the same Samajwadi Party left 38 seats for the alliance partner the Bahujan Samaj Party in 2019 Lok Sabha poll and itself contested in 37 seats, though in 2014 Mayawati’s outfit drew a blank.
BJP’s Worry
The last thing the BJP wanted to see was the coming together of opposition parties in more than 350 seats. This will bring the INDIA combination too close to the striking range.
Apart from this, the BJP is not expected to do very well in 75 seats of Kerala, Punjab, and West Bengal where the opposition is contesting separately.
Sensing this situation the BJP suddenly joined hands with Telugu Desam Party and Jana Sena of Pawan Kalyan in Andhra Pradesh and Biju Janata Dal in Odisha.
It is not only that INDIA held two such road shows in Patna and Mumbai, but leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Tejaswi Prasad Yadav undertook big yatras. They have certainly succeeded in sending their message deep down to the masses. This was not done by them in the first term of the Narendra Modi government between 2014 and 2019.
Thus, the joining of hands by the opposition parties and massive crowd mobilisation by them are new developments that the BJP is facing this time, though it is boasting that it will surpass the 400 mark. However, the ground situation suggests that the scenario is somewhat different.
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