Has the death knell sounded for the opposition?

Has the death knell sounded for the opposition?

What the TMC and Congress have wilfully done is to disable the opposition, triggering the kill switch to write the joint epitaph of the opposition parties

Neelu VyasUpdated: Saturday, July 23, 2022, 01:44 AM IST
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The nomination of Margaret Alva's name for the vice-presidential election was when things fell apart | Photo: Twitter Image

India exploded into celebrations on July 21 as it got its first tribal woman, Droupadi Murmu on the hot seat in Rashtrapati Bhawan as the 15th President of India. While BJP seemed to carry out its victory march, consolidating its position amongst the tribals of the country and cementing its position further, the tale of the opposition was a striking contrast as it got smashed into smithereens with the Trinamool Congress striking the final blow into the much-attempted edifice of opposition unity by deciding to abstain from the vice-presidential election. The novel narrative continuum of the BJP is no more a surprise as they are attuned to pulling rabbits out of their hats but amidst the loss of democratic space, institutions being destroyed and lack of a level playing field, the world is keeping a close eye on both the BJP as well as the opposition camp, and unfortunately the opposition parties in India appear to be failing in doing even the minimum they can do... putting up a united face against the BJP. Trinamool Congress played the game of one-upmanship against Congress in a bid to show that it has arrived as the new glue to the opposition amalgamation and proposed the name of Yashwant Sinha as the presidential candidate, simultaneously isolating Congress, but very shortly it realised that the tribal card weighed too heavily, sending its political calculations awry; thus it was forced to dump Yashwant Sinha.

The war of egos continued to play out between Mamata Banerjee and Sonia Gandhi behind the curtains and this time it was the Congress's turn to even out the battle and pay back Trinamool in its own coin. Thus Margaret Alva's name was proposed as the vice-presidential candidate but seemingly Trinamool was almost kept out of this exercise. The ruffled Trinamool finally made the big announcement of abstaining on August 6, saying that they were informed fifteen minutes before about Margaret Alva and hence they should not be taken for granted. It was clear that the Congress tried to checkmate TMC in the VP candidate selection

The death blow to the opposition had been dealt. The Congress indulged in empty posturing with nothing in its hand except for a hollow projection that it had established its supremacy in the selection of the vice-president candidate, but what about Trinamool? It seems to be walking into the BJP camp. Mamata will now end up supporting her bete noir Jagdeep Dhankar with whom she had always been at loggerheads. The rumour mills have already been activated with the buzz that Mamata is under pressure from the BJP, wondering what is Mamata's ultimate goal, is she making peace with Narendra Modi, will she rule Bengal for the next five years by brokering tranquillity with the centre, and so on. Well, Mamata has kept her cards close to the chest and for now it's difficult to read Didi's mind, but she certainly has dented the opposition wall. What the TMC and Congress have wilfully done, in the end, is to disable the opposition, triggering the kill switch to write the joint epitaph of the opposition parties. How will the opposition unite for 2024 elections, remains a conundrum.

The writer is a senior television anchor and consulting editor to Satya Hindi

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