NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Congress leader KC Venugopal, PDP President Mehbooba Mufti, AAP leader Raghav Chadha, Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, J&K National Conference Vice-President Omar Abdullah and other Opposition leaders during the I.N.D.I.A meeting in Delhi, September 13, 2023.
Credit: PTI Photo
There is unease among a number of parties in the I.N.D.I.A bloc over “inertia” of the panels formed to ease coordination at different levels with most of them not showing urgency or decisions taken by them not being implemented.
The decisions taken at the September 13 meeting of the Coordination Committee of the bloc – a rally in Bhopal and a concerted effort on pushing Caste Census – have not been implemented due to pushback against the ideas from within.
The move not to send I.N.D.I.A representatives to shows of 14 anchors pushed by the Working Group on Media has also not gone down well with a number of constituents. Till now, the decision has been taken on a replacement for the Bhopal rally, which has irked some constituents who believe it is already too late for the bloc to hit the streets.
A senior Opposition leader said the panels, including the top most Coordination Committee, face irrelevance as they rarely met after their initial meetings.
On record, the CPI(M) made it clear that I.N.D.I.A bloc's “organisation structures” are creating “impediments” for its smooth functioning and refused to name its representative for its Coordination committee.
Also, the leader said, the cancellation of the Bhopal rally showed that decisions made by panels cannot be implemented if top leaders are not part of the process.
National Conference’s Omar Abdullah is learnt to have told the leaders that there is no point in holding meetings of committees if decisions taken there are vetoed by party chiefs or other leaders who were not part of the decision making process.
The Coordination and Election Strategy Committee, Campaign Committee and Working Groups on Media, Social Media and Research were announced after the Mumbai meeting of the bloc on September 1.
The Coordination Committee had in its first meeting on September 13 decided to hold its first joint rally in Bhopal and “parties present in the meeting” had agreed to take up the issue of caste census.
Within days of the announcement of the rally, senior Congress leader Kamal Nath, who is not part of the Coordination Committee, announced that the programme will not be held in Bhopal. He highlighted that the timing was politically and logistically inconvenient for the party in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.
Kamal Nath’s main worry was sharing the stage with DMK, which has kicked up a storm over remarks on ‘Sanatana Dharma’ while he has designed his campaign on soft Hindutva symbolism as well as a ‘yatra’ he plans to start in the first week of October.
The proposal for bringing caste census to the forefront was opposed by Trinamool Congress, whose General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee skipped the first meeting as he had to appear before the Enforcement Directorate.