Opposition alliances to be formed state by state: Congress
Kolkata: The Congress on Saturday said the alliances of different opposition parties will have to be formed state by state with the objective to remove the Narendra Modi government which is “at war with its own people” and the opposition will not crumble under the contradictions among the various parties.
“The alliances if they have to be formed will have to be formed state by state. There are states where the Congress is strong. There are states where perhaps we don’t even need to enter into alliance. But there are states where the Congress is not so strong and so we will have to play a secondary role,” Congress Chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said at the India Today Conclave-East here.
He said the country and its people are “under attack today by a person and a party, who are ruling the nation”.
“This must be the first case of its kind when the people of the country are under attack by their government and Prime Minister,” he said.
Speaking on the possibility of a grand alliance of the opposition, he said there would always be competing claims by the different political parties in the states for political space.
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. To say that this is such an inherent contradiction that the entire force of opposition will crumble under it, is perhaps wrong,” Surjewala said.
“We have, today, a government which is at war with its own people. When a government is at war with its own people, does the responsibility lie upon the different political parties, while protecting their political space, to come together on an ideological platform to walk hand in hand to protect the ethos of this country. Sometimes, it will happen pre-poll or post-poll,” he said.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Fuad Halim, however, said the coming together of the opposition will be “underlined by the concrete realities because the Left is fighting against the Congress in Kerala”.
“But don’t be disheartened. On the question of Modi, we will override because people are fed up with him. Secular forces, based on a concrete understanding of how to dislodge the government at the centre, will definitely evolve,” he said.
Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said the Modi-led government and its people, which have unleashed a reign of terror and fear in the country, are the principal enemy of her party.
Pooh-poohing Surjewala’s claim, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said there will be “surprise results” in the upcoming general elections from the eastern states and the saffron party would do well.
Given the contradictions among the opposition parties, Sarma projected that the BJP might win even 400 seats.
