The debate about the leadership of the INDIA bloc, triggered by Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, is dividing the multi-party Opposition alliance. On Tuesday, veteran RJD leader and long-time Gandhi family supporter Lalu Prasad threw his weight behind Banerjee.
Asked about Banerjee’s remarks that “I can run INDIA bloc if they can’t run the show”, Lalu responded, “It’s fine, she should be given the responsibility. We are in agreement”. On whether the Congress might object, Lalu said: “Give the responsibility to Mamata”. Lalu’s remarks follow NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar’s reaction to Banerjee’s claim, calling her a “capable leader”. “She is a capable leader and has the right to say it. The MPs she has sent to Parliament are hardworking and aware,” Pawar was reported as saying.
On Monday, Samajwadi Party general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Ram Gopal Yadav stated that as of now, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was the leader of the INDIA bloc. He was replying to questions from reporters, in Saifai in Uttar Pradesh, whether he saw Rahul Gandhi as head of the bloc. At the same time, Yadav asserted, the SP wants the INDIA bloc to prevail and contest elections together. The SP’s differences with the Congress have been growing since the Lok Sabha results.
The fact that its partners are speaking out against its leadership of the INDIA bloc, as the largest party in it, is not good news for the Congress. The high of the Lok Sabha results, where the INDIA bloc reduced the BJP to less than a majority and the Congress itself got 99 seats, has evaporated in the blast of the Congress’s stunning losses in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections, and its poor showing in Jammu and Kashmir.
If the Congress is the largest party in the bloc, the SP is the second-largest and the TMC the third. Of the other INDIA parties, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has already announced that it would go alone in the Assembly elections for Delhi. Even if the AAP concedes, the Congress can at best hope to play second fiddle to it. Lalu’s endorsement of Banerjee could also be read as a message to the Congress ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections slated for next year.
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