Ready to flex its muscle, armed with issues and labelling the government and PM as “minus mandate” — This captures the Opposition’s placard for the Parliament session, the first after the Lok Sabha polls.
While the government has done some firefighting over the NEET issue, the Opposition is in no mood to be placated. It’s an issue which it knows very well could resonate, especially with many students being upset with the last-minute deferment of NEET exams. So this is one issue which the combined Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc wishes to raise.
In fact, sources say the bloc plans to reach out to parties such as the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP), which until now have preferred to stay away. The bloc feels the students’ issue would ensure expansion of the Opposition platform.
More than this, it’s the sheer optics on which the Opposition is riding. Topping the list for the Congress is the projection of Rahul Gandhi as the contender and achiever who “humbled the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)”. Adding to his muscle is Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Akhilesh Yadav, whose performance in Uttar Pradesh (UP) has shocked the BJP. Together with Rahul Gandhi, the UP wale ladke plan to “take them on”.
The icing on the cake, as per the Opposition, is the sweet revenge in the win of KL Sharma from Amethi.
The return of Mahua Moitra is another big win the Opposition is looking at. She has won with a huge margin after being disqualified as a Member of Parliament (MP) in her last term on charges of cash for questions. She had vowed to return to fight and the entire bloc had stood behind her. Her return will be showcased as vindication.
Interestingly, after the acrimony between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Congress during the Lok Sabha polls, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee has promised to campaign for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Wayanad, when the bypolls will be held. While the Congress awaits her entry into the Lok Sabha, Banerjee’s gesture will boost the INDIA bloc ties.
The TMC and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) performance in their states is one more point which they will raise against the BJP.
But the fulcrum of the Opposition strategy is the narrative they are building, that this is a “zero mandate government”. The Congress calls the PM a “1/3rd PM” as the BJP failed to win a simple majority. Not just this, the Congress hopes that just as their United Progressive Alliance-2 was riddled and weakened by its tantrum-throwing allies, this National Democratic Alliance (NDA), too, will have to deal with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal United (JDU). “This honeymoon won’t last long,” is what the INDIA bloc says.