President election lays bare everything that's wrong with the Opposition

India

oi-Prabhpreet

By Prabhpreet

With the dust around the election for President of India settled, facts related to voting pattern for both the candidates have come out. And they don't look pretty for the opposition.

Though it was expected that the ruling alliance National Democratic Alliance's candidate, Ram Nath Kovind, would cruise through to victory, the opposition was at least expected to show a united front and make sure that its nominee, Meira Kumar, gets all the votes of the members of its 17-party grouping.

But the break down of votes polled for each candidate shows that it failed to do so. Gujarat, Assam, Goa, Uttar Pradesh are some of the states where the legislators of party's, part of the 'united front' against the BJP, instead chose to vote for President-elect Kovind.

Such facts though might not have made any difference to the eventual result, lay bare everything wrong with the opposition including its inability to even take a stand, let alone doing it together. Along with these they also throw light on other underlying factors holding back the country from having an effective opposition that it deserves.

Mess that is the Congress

In an era of political alliances, with the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA representing the two main sides of India's political divide, the mess that the Congress is in, can be seen as one of the main causes of the opposition's standing today. And the condition of the party is a self-inflicted wound caused by the decisions made by it and the vacuum that exists at the top of it now.

The party has been in a downward spiral since the second half of the UPA government tenure, during which, it was shrouded in allegations of corruption and witnessed the beginning of Rahul Gandhi's flirtations with taking over. Half a decade has passed and the Gandhi scion has still not officially taken over the party.

And it is consistently outmanoeuvred at every turn by the BJP, in not only elections but also setting the narrative and winning the public debate. These include on strategy related to the media, handling of ground level leaders or dealing with regional parties to build a viable opposition front against the BJP.

The latest example of this being the cross-voting from the party's legislators in different states such as Gujarat, where the mishandling of the situation related to the party's senior state leader, Shankarsinh Vaghela, led to the legislators loyal to him voting for Kovind. Vaghela is no longer part of the party.

This latest misstep of the high command of the party when it comes to local leaders of the party is by no means the first time. A number important leaders have been treated the same way, especially when they do not come from a family with old ties with the Gandhi's, and worse when they take on those who do.

Assam's Himanta Biswa Sarma being a case in point who ended up having to leave the Congress after he became a challenger to then Chief Minister of the state Tarun Gogoi and his son Gaurav Gogoi. Sarma ended up joining the BJP and helped it replace the Congress in Assam. A number of other leaders have gone down the same path and the BJP has been the biggest beneficiary of this.

This makes the UPA's opponents stronger and gives sycophancy an impetus which in turn makes the party weaker as leaders chosen on the basis of it and not merit, end up losing elections as they lack any ground level political support. Ruling out the possibility of someone rising from the state level, with a strong ground level support, to lead the party and the alliance, as seen in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's case.

Regional allies saving their own skin

While such uncertainty and mess would have been considered an internal matter of Congress, the fact that it has stopped the country from having a viable and strong opposition required in a healthy democracy makes it a concern for the entire country.

The impact of the problems of the national party has impacted the alliance's ability to take on the NDA, while also hampering smaller yet important regional players giving open support to the UPA due to the fear that they too will be bracketed under the umbrella of corruption currently maligning the Congress.

Also their indecision or choice, due to this or some other reasons, to keep coming in and out of a national level alliance have harmed the opposition as well.

This is not to say that the regional players have no faults of their own, with many of them ruling over a divided house. Such a scenario came out in the open as cross-voting from members of the regional parties, who are part of the opposition, was witnessed in many states like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh etc.

Some of the major issues hampering parties like Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Left parties etc., are infighting, the lure of joining the BJP for its members, being engulfed in crisis after crisis in their own states and governments, among others, which the BJP is able to take advantage of.

On top of this, the fact that many of those trying to be allies, belong to the same state and in most cases are opponents of each other does not help. As could be seen in the case of Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) and Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal or the TMC and the other Left parties.

Such issues make coming up with joint strategies extremely difficult and even when formed the chances of them becoming ineffective are made high them. As could be seen in the case of the delay and choice of Meira Kumar as the opposition's candidate.

In addition to these the fact that none of the leaders are able to decide on any one leader who all of them can get behind has made matters worse, especially since the traditional party to play this role, the Congress is in turmoil.

The need for which was made clear as noted historian and political commentator, Ramachandra Guha recently said, "There is a genuine leader in India. That is Nitish Kumar. He is a leader without a party, the Congress is a party without a leader. If Congress gives him a chance to lead the UPA, it might have a future."

BJP - A formidable opponent to take on

If these were not enough, the fact that they have to take on the BJP, which is at the height of its powers, has just added to their problems. The saffron party was not only able to come to power with the biggest mandate in around three decades by winning a majority on its own, but they have continued to grow ever since as well.

The party is in power in 17 states in the country, 13 on its own and four in a coalition, and is widely expected to win the next general elections. This though did not let it take the election to choose the next resident of Rashtrapati Bhavan casually.

They were quick to nominate Kovind, a choice, which ticked all the right boxes and put the opposition on the back foot, leaving them only with a choice to react and not be able to take the initiative away from the ruling alliance.

Such a way of functioning is not new. For example earlier this year even when it came to forming governments after recent assembly elections in states such as Goa and Manipur where the BJP was the second largest party, it moved in swiftly to form governments successfully while the Congress that won the maximum seats was in a state of slumber.

The NDA's choice also got votes from the opposition camp in a number of states where their main adversary is not the Congress but one or more regional parties. The election was used for and was able to show that the party is breaking ground among not only people of these states but also among leaders of its opponents.

Another advantage that the BJP seems to have is a clear leadership that both the opposition as a group, and the Congress within itself, desperately lack. With Modi and party president Amit Shah at the helm and the backing of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak with its vast grass root level reach the BJP has been able to move in quickly to take benefit of every opportunity.

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Though this does by no stretch of the imagination mean that there is no way back for its opponents, which should be the case in any true democracy. Similar situations have also been seen in the past when a leader had a standing where defeat seemed a distant possibility, yet became a reality anyway. But to make a comeback an acceptance of the present circumstances that the opponents of the BJP find themselves needs to seep in.

This is the basis of any chance that a reinvention of not only themselves but also the dynamics of the relationship between such parties will happen. To reinvent is exactly the need of the hour as while these parties keep crying foul about being under attack by the party in power, it's the skeletons that are in their closets that are enabling such actions.

It would allow them not to repeat the mistakes made so far and make them realise that they need to stand for something more than just being anti-BJP, especially given the popularity that the Prime Minister and his party are enjoying at the moment.

Though such problems have hounded the opposition for years, the parties do not seem to be in the mood or able to learn from their mistakes as there is no hint of, any of the possible steps that could give them a chance to form a viable alternative, being initiated so far. Which can be seen by the nature of the defeat in the election that saw Kovind getting elected as the next President of India.

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