Long before it was expected that opposition parties would cobble up an unholy alliance to fight a handicap match against the BJP in the political Wrestlemania of 2024 general elections, all hopes of opposition unity were dashed when Prashant Kishor, Congress and TMC appeared ready to engage in a royal rumble in order to present themselves as a “national” alternative to the BJP government at the centre.
It all started with a tweet posted by poll strategist Prashant Kishor on Friday morning. In his tweet, Kishor shared a message for the Congress party, saying those looking for a quick revival of the grand old party-led coalition following the Lakhimpur Kheri incident are in for a big disappointment.
“Unfortunately, there are no quick-fix solutions to the deep-rooted problems and structural weakness of GOP,” Kishor tweeted.
Kishor’s pointed suggestion about the inherent weakness of the GOP seemed to have deeply stung the Congress party, which is struggling to keep itself relevant in the Indian political arena. Scores of Congress leaders and their supporters slammed the poll strategist for sharing his wisdom on the deficiencies that plague the party.
Senior Congress leader and Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel also jumped into the fray and launched a thinly-veiled attack against West Bengal CM and the leader of TMC Mamata Banerjee.
“People looking for a ‘national’ alternative based on poaching INC functionaries who can’t win even their own seats is a big disappointment,” Baghel tweeted.
Though Baghel did not mention Mamata Banerjee, his implicit reference to the TMC chief was hard to miss. Banerjee had lost her election against BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari during the assembly election polls in West Bengal in May 2021. However, her party managed to rack up a thumping majority to once again form the government in the state.
The assembly election victory gave a boost to Mamata Banerjee-led TMC’s national ambitions. Of late, in their bid to project a pan-India presence and raise itself as a credible alternative to the ruling government, TMC was on a spree to recruit politicians from all other political parties, most notably Congress. Several Congress functionaries had left the Congress party and joined the TMC. Baghel was referring to this phenomenon when he took a sly dig at the TMC for building a “national” alternative based on poaching leaders from the Congress party.
“Unfortunately, to become a national alternative deep-rooted and concerted efforts are needed and there are no quick-fix solutions,” Baghel retorted.
But this stinging blow by Baghel raised the hackles of the Trinamool Congress party, which took to Twitter to mock the Congress party and its leader Rahul Gandhi for his monumental defeat in Amethi in the 2019 General elections. The TMC, which has been critical of Congress for its failure to put up a fight against the BJP, also called Baghel’s remarks a “shoddy attempt to please the high command”.
“By the way, is @INCIndia going to try to erase the historical defeat at Amethi through yet another Twitter trend?” the official Twitter account of TMC acidly asked.
The ties between the Congress party and the TMC have nosedived recently after the latter’s mouthpiece, “Jago Bangla” asserted that the party supremo Mamata Banerjee and not Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has emerged as the face of the opposition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Nevertheless, the Twitter spat is but a trailer of what lies ahead as far as the opposition is concerned in India’s politics. It is expected that this online bickering is just the start to what might turn out to be a political slugfest in staking the claim to India’s “national” alternative. On one side, it is TMC’s hubris and on the other, it is Congress’ sense of entitlement to lead the opposition. It would be fascinating to watch who emerges victorious in this battle royal, and even more interesting would be to see if the winner manages to strike a chord with the people or ends up helping BJP’s ascension to power, yet again.