Congress’ big brother swag irks Opposition parties

New Delhi: The nascent steps towards an Opposition coalition against the Narendra Modi government are already fumbling and the reason seems to be the Congress party’s refusal to play second fiddle to anyone and its purported big brother attitude towards smaller parties like Janata Dal (United) and the Nationalist Congress Party.

Cracks in Opposition ranks were evident during Friday’s GST event in Parliament when many parties decided to chart their own course and attend the programme instead of following the Congress’ call to boycott the midnight gala.

Earlier, the JD(U) under Nitish Kumar, snubbed the Congress when it decided to support the NDA’s presidential candidate despite being the initiator of talks of Opposition unity.

In both instances many leaders told this newspaper that it was the Congress’ insistence on playing the big brother which was responsible for the rift.

“Despite being reduced to its historical low of just 44 seats, the Congress is behaving as if it is still in a leadership position, JD(U) national secretary K.C. Tyagi said.

“During the presidential polls, we had all agreed on the name of Gopal Krishna Gandhi as the Opposition candidate, but the Congress insisted on delaying the announcement of the name. Actually it always wanted to have its own candidate,” Mr Tyagi added.

He blamed these “machinations” of the Congress for the JD(U)’s decision to break away and support the candidature of NDA presidential-pick Ram Nath Kovind.

Samajwadi Party (SP)  leader and member of Rajya Sabha Naresh Agrawal too echoed similar sentiments.

The Congress called up SP leaders asking them to boycott the GST launch but it did so only after announcing its own decision at a press conference, he said.

“We are an independent party and take our own decisions. We cannot be expected to be asked to follow,” he said, adding that on the issue of skipping the GST launch boycott the Congress itself could not make up its mind and was dithering till the last moment. However, the Congress disagrees with sentiments of other parties.  

A senior Congress leader, who did not wish to be quoted, told this newspaper that the party believes it is the only alternative available for a secular coalition. Any such Opposition platform has to be led by the Congress.

“It was Congress president Sonia Gandhi who had got all the parties together in the first place. The 44 seats don’t matter. We have seen worse times. Also if the BJP can grow from a mere two seats in Lok Sabha to this level then why can’t we bounce back,” he said.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that “it was not inevitable that Mr Modi comes back to power in 2019” and cited the example of 2004 when the UPA-I came to power despite the NDA’s “India Shining” campaign.

Congress sources in fact blamed the Bihar Chief Minister’s prime ministerial ambitions for his going the NDA way in the presidential polls.

“Mr Nitish Kumar is trying to project himself as a clean politician with an impeccable image eyeing the big job in 2019. He is portraying that he is capable of taking an independent stand and is not dependent on any big party so that he emerges as an alternative to Mr Modi,” said a Congress leader.

As far as the Nationalist Congress Party and its chief Mr Sharad Pawar was concerned, Congress sources said the Maratha strongman was not keen to attend the Opposition parties’ meeting on the day Meira Kumar’s name was announced as the Opposition presidential candidate.

A reluctant Mr Pawar was virtually lured to the meeting with hints of a broad-based Opposition coalition in the run up to the 2019 polls of which he could be the face. “So there is nothing strange that he decided to go to the GST launch event,” said a Congress leader.