INDIA in trouble? How AAP and Congress’ war of words casts shadow on alliance

-

INDIA – the Opposition’s bloc taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is seeing cracks, casting a shadow on the success of the alliance. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has threatened to walk out of the alliance, ahead of its bloc’s meeting in Mumbai – most likely to be held on 31 August and 1 September.

On Wednesday, the AAP chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said: “If the Congress has decided to contest all the seven seats in Delhi alone, then there is no point in going to the INDIA alliance’s meeting. Our top leadership will decide whether or not to attend the next meeting of the alliance.”

Does this mean it’s the beginning of the end for the INDIA alliance? What caused the AAP to question the alliance? What does this mean for the future?

We give you all the answers.

The statement that caused the trouble

The AAP threatening to withdraw from the INDIA alliance came after Delhi Congress leader Alka Lamba said that the party asked its leaders to prepare for a contest in all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi next year.

Lamba made the comment to the press after Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and party MP Rahul Gandhi held a three-hour meeting with their senior colleagues in the nation’s capital. When asked what was discussed during the meet, Lamba told news agency ANI, “We have been told how to prepare for the 2024 election. Before the Delhi meeting, the leadership has met our people in 18 states. It has been decided all Congress leaders will immediately go to work on the seven seats in Delhi to win them. Seven months are left. All party workers have been asked to prepare for all seven seats.”

Congress’ Alka Lamba later clarified that she did not talk about having or not having an alliance. File image/PTI

The AAP, who is the ruling party in Delhi, saw red and Kakkar reacted by stating: “If the Congress has decided that it will not come together for an alliance with us in Delhi, there is no point in attending the INDIA alliance meeting and wasting time. Our leadership will take a final decision on whether we will attend the next meeting.”

AAP minister Saurabh Bharadwaj also reacted to the comment, saying, “Our central leadership will decide this…Our political affairs committee and INDIA parties will sit together and discuss this.”

AAP’s Vinay Mishra was also quoted as telling NDTV, “The Congress leader’s statement is very surprising. After such statements, what is the justification of the INDIA alliance? Arvind Kejriwal ji should decide on what to do next, which is important in the interest of the country. A decision should be taken.”

Also read: INDIA vs NDA in 2024: Why the Opposition alliance changed its name

Damage control

Fearing AAP’s withdrawal from the alliance, Congress quickly resorted to damage control after Lamba’s comment. Deepak Babaria, the AICC in-charge for Delhi and Haryana, stepped in and said that Lamba is not authorised to talk about such sensitive issues.

Babaria added that there was no such discussion in the meeting, and moreover, such matters was the exclusive domain of the leadership.

“What a possible alliance with the AAP, if there is one, will look like, is under the ambit of the high command, which will decide the way forward… There was no discussion regarding it today… We only discussed how to possibly give voice to issues being faced by the average citizen of the city,” he said as per an Indian Express report.

The Congress representative also quipped at the AAP for reacting sharply to Lamba’s statement. “I feel that there are immature people in Aam Aadmi Party. If they want to take such a big decision on the basis of media reports then even God cannot save them,” he was quoted as telling reporters.

Later, Alka Lamba – the woman who started it all – questioned AAP’s reaction, asking what the controversy was all about. “What is the controversy about? Judega Bharat, jeetega India. Listen to my answer to ANI questions. Tell me where did I talk about having or not having an alliance with anyone?”

AAP-Congress’ shaky equation

Lamba’s remark and AAP’s reaction is only the latest example showing how unstable ties are between the two parties. Even earlier at the Patna meet where the INDIA bloc met for the first time, AAP-Congress ties were a major point of discussion. Kejriwal had then sought assurance from Kharge and Gandhi that the Congress would oppose the now-passed Delhi services bill in the Rajya Sabha.

Kejriwal, along with Mann and AAP Rajya Sabha MPs Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha, attended the Bengaluru meeting of the Opposition in July — where the alliance name INDIA was decided — only after the Congress pledged to oppose the Bill.

Moreover, there still seems to be resentment within one section of the Congress on how the Kejriwal-led party decimated them in the 2015 election in Delhi. The AAP had then won 67 of the 70 seats, with the Congress drawing blank in the polls.

The INDIA alliance is made up of 26 parties. Their main aim is to defeat PM Modi and the BJP in the upcoming 2024 general elections. File image/PTI

INDIA’s Mumbai meet

The war of words between the AAP and Congress doesn’t bode well for the INDIA alliance, which is scheduled to meet at the end of this month in Mumbai. It clearly shows that the unity between the parties isn’t as solid, as members of the alliance keep stressing on.

Additionally, the mystery meetings between Nationalist Congress Party’s Sharad Pawar and his rebel nephew Ajit Pawar is also a worrying sign for the alliance, with many wondering if the NCP patriarch will switch sides over to the BJP. However, Senior Pawar has insisted that he remains with the INDIA bloc.

Also read: I.N.D.I.A: How the rhetoric of Opposition unity is old wine in a new bottle

The 26-party bloc will meet in Mumbai, most probably on 31 August and 1 September, during which there is likely to be an announcement on the composition of committees for specific actions such as communication and 2024 general election campaign in the run-up to the polls.

A joint secretariat for better coordination among the parties is also to be announced soon. During the meeting, the parties are expected to iron out their differences as much as possible, especially in states where they are in a direct poll battle.

The Mumbai meeting will build on the Patna and Bengaluru discussions. It was in Bengaluru that the Opposition parties decided on naming the alliance INDIA and the tagline ‘Jeetega Bharat’.

With inputs from agencies



from Firstpost India Latest News https://ift.tt/bWF8xVl
FP Explainers

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Both COVID-19 vaccine doses needed for good protection against B16172 variant

-
It’s been a concerning few weeks in the UK, with the B16172 variant first taking hold and then spreading to become dominant. This more infectious form of the virus, initially identified in India, is what we’re now going to have to live with – unless it is out-competed by another variant in the future. Worryingly, experts had predicted that B16172 might be able to escape some of the effects of vaccines, which if true would threaten to derail the UK’s plans to finish lifting restrictions from the end of June. However, Public Health England (PHE) has looked at the ability of various variants to evade immunity and says that the UK’s vaccines remain effective against the variants circulating, including B16172. On the surface, this looks like good news. But delve a bit deeper, and things get more complicated, says Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia. PHE’s research found a little drop-off in protection against B16172 among people who were fully vaccinated.
Read more

New coronavirus variant emerge in India: How should our COVID response change?

-
Image
After genome sequencing of over 10,000 COVID-19 cases in India, researchers have discovered a new variant with two new mutations which may be better at evading the immune system. In 15-20 percent of samples from the Indian state of Maharashtra (the state accounting for 62 percent of cases in the country) a new, double mutation in key areas of the virus has been detected. These are now known as the E484Q and L452R mutations. What makes the variant different? Both these mutations are concerning because they are located in a key portion of the virus – the spike protein – that it uses to penetrate human cells. Spike proteins attach via a “receptor binding domain”, meaning the virus can attach to receptors in our cells. These new mutations include changes to the spike protein that make it a “better fit” for human cells. This means the virus can gain entry more easily and multiply faster. Given what we have seen with other similar mutations , it might also make it harder for our immu
Read more

Aditya L1 Mission: Spacecraft is nearing its final phase, says ISRO chief

-
Aditya L1 spacecraft is nearing its final phase, and manoeuvres to enter the L1 point are expected to be completed by January 7, 2024, according to ISRO Chairman S Somanath. “Aditya is on the way. I think it has reached almost its final phase,” the ISRO chief told PTI on the sidelines of an event organised at VSSC to commemorate the 60th year of the First Sounding Rocket Launch. Aditya L1, India’s first space-based mission to study the Sun, was successfully launched on September 2 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota. The spacecraft, after travelling about 1.5 million km from Earth over 125 days, is expected to be placed in a Halo orbit around the Lagrangian point L1, considered closest to the Sun. He said that the last preparations for the spacecraft’s entry into the L1 point are currently underway incrementally.”Possibly by January 7th, the final manoeuvres will be done for entering into the L1 point,” Somanath added. Among other tasks, it will capture and tr
Read more