By Sushil Kutty
Sulking is common to non-BJP Chief Ministers. And opposition unity suffers. Right now the tribe of non-BJP Chief Ministers sees opportunity in Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s problems. The Modi government’s ordinance upturning the Supreme Court’s verdict that gave Delhi’s AAP government control over “services” is the magnet for opposition unity and Kejriwal has been dragging Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to all corners of India seeking opposition unity confirming the oft-forgotten dictum that only when it happens to yourself does the shoe pinch.
Otherwise Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was mostly always down with “sulk” when opposition unity was talked about. That said, opposition unity was never discarded by Nitish Kumar and others like him. In February this year, there were reports of seven chief ministers plus Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashvi Yadav forming what was called the “G-8” to work for cobbling unity against the Bharatiya Janata Party come the 2024 general elections.
One of the”G-8” then was Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, master of the subtle shifting stance. Today, KCR has become the single most uncertain factor in the quest for opposition unity. His party, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) will not be at the coming Patna Conclave of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar possible on June 23, whose dogged pursuit to knit an opposition coalition to fight Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been the only redeeming feature of his politics.
KCR’s compromised mind was revealed by BRS working president KT Rama Rao. And Nitish Kumar shouldn’t be surprised. This isn’t the first time KCR has gone against an attempt to forge opposition unity. The Bihar CM’s earlier rendezvous with KCR would have been funny if it wasn’t going live. This time, KTR – who is KCR’s son and a minister in the KCR cabinet – made it pretty plain that the BRS did not think opposition unity was the way to fix Modi’s future.
KCR’s national ambitions have evaporated. The man is empty husk, minus the Nitish Kumar’s obsession to unite non-BJP parties to put Modi out to pasture. The Bharat Rashtra Samithi doesn’t believe in “third or fourth fronts” anymore. And that because political situations differ state to state! KCR says the conditions in Telangana are not like those in West Bengal or Bihar, forget Delhi.
By the way, KCR is the last Chief Minister to be bothered about Kejriwal’s “services” woes. Also, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has always been a headache to the BRS Chieftain. That said, KCR’s national ambitions appear to be on hold. Sure, he did not transform TRS to BRS to help anybody other than himself to be the Opposition’s “PM Face”, which is the common ambition of a slew of non-BJP chief ministers including Arvind Kejriwal and Nitish Kumar.
So, by that reckoning, why should KCR be at the Patna Conclave when the Opposition’s “PM Face” decision would be still left hanging? Till a few weeks ago, as far as KCR and BRS was concerned, BRS was a national party and KCR was the “BRS PM Face”. Not anymore, it seems? Nitish Kumar’s points-man KC Tyagi has been trying to bring K Chandrasekhar Rao and YSRCP Chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to the Patna Conclave. But the “two Telugu CMs” have their “Telugu minds” made up. Jagan Mohan Reddy doesn’t even want to be the opposition’s “PM Face” because he is on a different trip altogether, which has to do with Rahul Gandhi and nobody else.
Now, the BRS doesn’t want opposition unity. KCR and KTR are talking like they are angels. And angels do not believe in “negativity”, only in “positive agendas”, which rules out “dethroning Modi”. So Patna isn’t part of the BRS national geography. Does that mean, KCR has caved in and given up his prime ministerial ambitions, the whole thing about becoming the combined Opposition’s “PM Face”?
There is talk of the central investigating agencies going all out to finish Arvind Kejriwal and KCR’s daughter K Kavitha is part of the unholy “sharab ghotala” miring the Delhi government. The CBI and the ED have been taking turns to “engage” the BRS leader and her associates. And it is not a pretty sight when seen in the context of what has happened to jailed Delhi Minister Satyender Jain and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
The BRS’s goody-goody angelic image transformation is out of sheer compulsion. The BRS belief that Narendra Modi, the “most ineffective and incompetent prime minister”, will be thrown out by the “people themselves” and does not require opposition parties to unite tells a story of capitulation. What kind of pressure has made the ambitious KCR give up his prime ministerial ambitions? (IPA Service)
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