Desperation to save political ground against the BJP has been pushing the opposition camp into uncomfortable twists and turns. From arch rivals BSP and SP forging an alliance of convenience to Raj Thackeray emerging as the new ‘liberal’ hero, people have seen it all in this election.
However, the desperation seems to be building up as the date of the result inches closer. In a similar move, around 21 opposition parties are set to meet the honorable President, after the election is over, in a bid to make an appeal to not call the single largest party to form the government in case of a split verdict, sources said.
The opposition parties plan to give a signed letter to the President, claiming support for an alternative way of forming the government. However, this move by the opposition camp reeks of intent to mislead the electorate going into the last two phases of the general elections. Similar questions were raised when the governor in Karnataka had called the BJP, which emerged as the single largest party after the 2018 assembly election. Opposition parties, mainly Congress and JD(S), cried foul that their post-poll alliance should have been called to make the first claim. However, various experts had discarded these claims as they were contrary to the convention.
After myriads of accusations against the credibility of EVMs, which were repeatedly discarded on factual grounds, opposition has even tried to churn controversies out of thin air. Even in the Rafale controversy, Rahul Gandhi tendered an unconditional apology for attributing comments to the apex court which were never made. Now this step is surely an attempt to undermine not only the Indian democracy and its conventions, but also an insult to the mandate given by about a billion voters, who voted in favor of their choice based on the pre-poll political scenario.
Leading the efforts to actuate this change of practice is Telangana CM and TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who according to sources, has believes that neither the BJP nor the Congress will be able to form a government even with their present allies. He believes that the two parties (BJP and Congress) won’t even get anywhere near the halfway mark. The TRS chief is also eyeing the PM’s post. Though highly ambitious, the ‘alternate front’ is more likely to emerge as a replacement for Congress as the principle opposition post this election. However, the feasibility of Federal Front is just speculative and holds no solid basis for making any conclusive statement.
With no ideological backing, this ‘alternate front’ is just dependent on the numbers which, as experience from our long history of parliamentary democracy shows, might be important but not the sole factors that affect the mandate. However, this attempt to usurp people’s mandate is surely going to meet voters’ wrath at the polling stations in the two phases that remain.