HD Kumaraswamy took oath as Chief Minister of Karnataka yesterday after a long drawn out political maneuvering. Big political leaders of the country attended his swearing in ceremony. His swearing-in ceremony provided a stage for so-called opposition unity. What was supposed to be a display of opposition unity and show of strength against BJP and PM Modi ended up being the beginning of new high voltage political drama. Two videos of swearing-in ceremony have surfaced in which West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee can be seen upset and furious. Apparently, she is not happy with the Congress, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and can be seen expressing her discomfort with them in the video. According to a video shared by Republic TV, Mamata Banerjee is seen in the video complaining to HD Kumaraswamy and his father and ex-PM Deve Gowda. Following is the transcript of her utterances.
IT’S NOT MY FAULT… (INAUDIBLE)’
SONIA GANDHI AND RAHUL GANDHI… (INAUDIBLE)
WHO IS NOT CHIEF MINISTER (INAUDIBLE)
YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO… (INAUDIBLE)’
‘…INSULT…’ (INAUDIBLE) ‘…PARTY…’
Finally, Mamata Banerjee furiously exits saying, ‘I AM LEAVING. SORRY FOR LEAVING’
During her tirade against the Gandhis, the father-son duo of Kumaraswamy and Devegowda stood next to her in an apologetic manner with their hands folded.
Later on, when all the attendee leaders came together on the stage for photo-op, Mamta Banerjee can be seen avoiding Rahul Gandhi. They never shook their hands with each other. Both of them seem to be ignoring each other’s presence. When asked about supporting Congress, she looked reluctant to openly say anything clearly about it. These things happen when so many PM-aspirants gather at one stage. She looked more interested in forming an anti-BJP alliance of regional parties excluding the Congress.
Yesterday, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had also skipped the swearing-in-ceremony because he didn’t want to share the stage with the Gandhis. He, along with Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, pitched the idea of a federal front to take on the BJP, without the Congress. The Congress is the main opposition party in Telangana and KCR would not identify with the Congress party especially when the polls in his home state are due next year. KCR had proposed federal front as both anti-BJP and anti-Congress. The unwillingness of leaders of two big regional parties to come together with the Congress would be a huge setback to opposition unity. Another leader of a regional party, Naveen Patnaik of Biju Janta Dal of Odisha, doesn’t even remotely want to be seen as Anti-BJP/ Anti-Modi. Yesterday, he was also absent from the swearing-in ceremony. Another regional leader with national aspirations, Arvind Kejriwal, attended the swearing-in ceremony but was curiously absent from the photo-ops. This could point to two things, either Kejriwal does not want to be associated with some of the leaders in this ‘united opposition’ or the rest of the leaders decided to keep Kejriwal away. Given Kejirwal’s affinity to court controversial leaders and embrace anything and everything anti-Modi no matter how tainted it is, the latter proposition seems more likely. In any case, this does not bode well for the theatrics of the opposition unity.
This idea of opposition unity before the general elections is not a new thing in India. Earlier also various regional parties have come together to oppose a particular person and a particular party and the end result for such an alliance was always very predictable. During the 90s, the country suffered a lot because of the coalition governments. Most recent example of the collapse of opposition unity is the one that was formed in Bihar. It happens because parties come together to fight against a particular person or party without having any common ideology. This always become their undoing.