Finally, the Opposition Stirs...

NEW DELHI: At a time when the Congress has become invisible, the Left is in the midst of serious introspection it has been left to the “Lohiates” to strike out, find common denominators to re-unite into a ‘national’ opposition to the Bharatiya Janata Party at the centre.

The forthcoming Parliament session, but even more than that the Bihar and Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2015 and 2016 respectively, has brought the old Janata Dal Yadavs together with former colleagues such as Janata Dal(()’s Nitish Kumar, Janata Dal(S) Deve Gowda and Indian National Lok Dal Om Prakash Chautala.

These leaders have met over two meetings, the first hosted away from the media spotlights by Chautala in Gurgaon a couple of weeks before the Haryana polls. The second meeting held on Thursday was hosted by Samajwadi party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav who has finally responded to an earlier call by Bihar leaders Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav to join them in their fight against the communal forces.

The meeting today was seen by all those who attended as a major and highly significant step forward. One, all present agreed that there was need for all the socialist parties who had splintered after coming together in the Janata Dal to re-unite. And as some present pointed out that most present were “Lohiaites” and should not be reticent about this identity.

Clearly both Lalu Yadav and Mulayam Singh have sunk their differences now, and according to sources, the bonhomie between them was visible and “real.” The political parties will also be cooperating in the forthcoming session of Parliament, although from the top leaders only Gowda and Mulayam Singh are MPs now.

The regional leaders were also clear about maintaining distance from the Congress party in terms of an alliance. “Of course we will work with them on issues but definitely not enter into any kind of deeper understanding,” the sources said. The target will remain the BJP, however, with more meetings lined up to consolidated this long elusive unity between these regional---and mostly erstwhile Janata Dal---parties.

The Left that is caught in its own introspection before the Party Congress next year is not particularly keen at this stage to play its usual cementing role. Its absence at the meeting today was part of a decision taken within to work with opposition groups on issues, but not to work as it has in the past to build alliances. In the Left assessment the character of the regional parties and the leadership has changed and has to be accounted for in any political strategy it might adopt to deal with the new circumstances and challenges on the ground.

A Lalu-Mulayam-Nitish nexus can play a major role in both Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The results of the recent bye elections in these state favouring the regional parties has also acted as a boost for unity, that many in the meeting today, wanted to be extended to ‘national unity’ in the form of a single party.

However, while the going has been fairly good till now most of the leaders were clear that a great deal more needed to be done to strengthen confidence and trust, and build working relationships between the organisations on the ground.