NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole at a press conference, in Mumbai, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023.
Credit: PTI Photo
Top Opposition leaders set the tone for the two-day I.N.D.I.A meeting starting here on Thursday by sharpening their attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi while indicating that more parties from the length and breadth of the country would join the grouping.
The meeting is likely to finalise common campaign and agitation plans for the I.N.D.I.A parties.
On Wednesday, top leaders Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar held a joint press conference here along with Congress’s Ashok Chavan and Nana Patole, sending signals that the NCP patriarch stood solidly behind the Opposition grouping.
However, AAP chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar’s demand that Arvind Kejriwal should be I.N.D.I.A’s Prime Ministerial candidate created some unease but the party fielded senior Minister Atishi to set the record straight before any damage was done. Atishi said the Delhi Chief Minister would not be in the race.
The AAP leader’s pitch for Kejriwal came as JD(U) leaders had pitched Nitish Kumar’s name for the Prime Ministerial face. Kumar is also considered to be among the front-runners for the post of I.N.D.I.A Convenor, if the group decides to have one.
Amid the “distractions”, as one leader put it, Opposition leaders however chose to highlight the positives, saying the number of parties in the bloc have risen to 28 in Mumbai, with two more parties, including the Peasant and Workers Party, enterting the fold. Pawar said he is in touch with more parties and after consensus emerges, many of them will be added.
At the press conference, Thackeray made light of questions on the group’s Prime Ministerial face, saying they have “several choices” for the post but one should actually ask whether the BJP has a choice.
“But what choice does BJP have, except one. They had one person for the past ten years and what did he do? In Karnataka, they even dragged ‘Bajrangbali’ but he also did not bless them. The question is whether there is a choice in BJP. I will ask ‘kaun banega’...” he said.
On the question of who would be the Convenor, he said one should wait till the meeting is over on Friday and the leaders cannot say anything now. “Do you have a name for the NDA Convenor?” he asked.
Pawar said he was sure that an “alternative forum will be ready” to change the country. He said the parties will soon prepare a minimum agreed programme to take the fight on.
On the rebellion in the NCP, Pawar said in comments that were construed as directed at his nephew Ajit Pawar, "Let me be clear... there is absolutely no confusion over NCP...People will teach a lesson to those who have left.”
All the leaders, especially Thackeray and Chavan, targeted Modi on Chinese “incursions” and the recent slashing of LPG prices. Opposition leaders Sanjay Raut and Patole said “once I.N.D.I.A moves ahead, China will have to retreat”.
Referring to the ‘Raksha Bandhan’ festival being celebrated on Wednesday, Thackeray said the time had come to “save Bharat Mata” from “dictatorship and jumlabaazi”. On the LPG price slashing, he said the growing prominence of of I.N.D.I.A could force the government to even sell LPG for free.
He also questioned why no such measure was taken in the past nine years. “Wasn’t there no Raksha Bandhan earlier?,” he asked.
Chavan said in Maharashtra, the Opposition parties together polled 23.40 crore votes while the BJP could garner only 22.90 crore in 2019, indicating that fighting together could reap benefits. He said the group has 11 Chief Ministers and it would have been more, if the BJP had not engineered defections.
Asked whether BSP chief Mayawati has a place in the group, Pawar said, “it is not known on whose side she is. Earlier she has had dialogue with BJP, that is what we learnt.”
On Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi founder Prakash Ambedkar, Thackeray said that the Shiv Sena (UBT) and VBA had an alliance. "We will talk to him, know what is in his mind and accordingly take a call."