First mega Oppn meet today

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 9

As the opposition parties gear to hold their first big common strategy meeting here tomorrow to discuss the 2019 Lok Sabha elections strategy, all eyes will be on the two crucial regional players from Uttar Pradesh, the BSP and the SP.

Top sources privy to arrangements for the all-party opposition meet to be held tomorrow indicated that Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party may not attend the gathering. Sources also said the presence of Samajwadi Party representatives was expected but not confirmed.

“The BSP is unlikely to be there and the likelihood of SP’s presence is fifty-fifty,” a top Congress strategist said today. Mayawati has already snubbed various Congress overtures in the past to stitch viable statewide alliances in order to prevent the division of anti-BJP votes. The BSP aligned with Ajit Jogi in Chhattisgarh and went alone in Madhya Pradesh accusing the Congress of arrogance in power-sharing talks.

Later, the BSP chief announced her plans to go alone in the LS poll as well. The SP, too, had appeared cut up with the Congress on the eve of the just-concluded five state elections with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav ruing over inertia on the part of the Congress in finalising seat-sharing modalities.

Although TDP Chief and Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu, who is hosting tomorrow’s meet is expecting the BSP to change its mind about a wider non-BJP alliance for 2019, Mayawati hasn’t shown any signs of thawing yet.

“Let us wait and see who turns up tomorrow,” a senior Congress leader said. Trinamool Congress Chief and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee is slated to attend the meeting so is the CPM and CPI leadership. NCP, RJD, RLD, NC, DMK are the other major parties in tow for tomorrow’s gathering.

Indications are that Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal may attend the meeting with the larger opposition expected to chalk out the contours of potential alliances for the 2019 General Election.

Both Mamata Banerjee and NCP chief Sharad Pawar favour state-wise pacts to maximise the electoral strength of the anti-BJP camp. Congress veteran P Chidambaram has also backed a similar plan, saying dominant state parties should strike viable alliances with other opposition parties to ensure the defeat of the BJP in 2019.

The Congress calculation is simple — BJP got only 31 per cent of the votes in 2014 LS polls. The remaining are out there to be tapped.

However, worries linger in the Opposition over the continued disenchantment of the BSP and recently of the SP. Uttar Pradesh with 80 LS seats remains the most crucial state for any potential anti-BJP plan. Without the BSP and the SP on board the opposition’s UP applecart would be disturbed, upsetting national calculations. The BJP on its part is projecting PM Narendra Modi as the fulcrum of opposition efforts pitching 2019 as a Modi versus all battle.

Those expected 

The meeting will see the presence of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh apart from Opposition stalwarts like Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah, Sitaram Yechury and perhaps even Arvind Kejriwal