Opposition parties plan to hold 'conclave of chief ministers' in Delhi

NEW DELHI: As the present upheaval in CBI, the country’s premier investigating agency, continues to embarrass the Narendra Modi government, Opposition parties are planning to hold a conclave of chief ministers here to highlight the “collapse of government machinery” in the context, to hit out at the ruling BJP, to build narrative against it as the election season sets in.

With many of the opposition parties having accused the CBI, that comes under the direct control of the Prime Minister’s Office, of being misused by the government against political rivals, seems to have jumped on to the opportunity of attacking the government over the disarray in the CBI with its own top officers squabbling and hence being overnight “shunted out” by the government.

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had sent out a letter on October 8, to invite chief ministers from non-BJP run states for a meeting essentially to continue their deliberations on Terms of Reference of the 15 ^th Finance Commission, which many states have been saying are against the federal spirit of the Constitution and hence "inimical to the concept of cooperative federalism." But while the earlier agenda was to discuss the Centre-state relations and the ToR of the 15 ^th Finance Commission, it will now include the collapse of the government pegged to the recent CBI fiasco.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal who will host the meet here on October 29 and 30, will be sending out a formal invitation to the other chief ministers again.

Chief ministers and finance ministers of Bengal, Kerala, Punjab, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi have met for three rounds in turns, at Thiruvananthpuram, Amravati earlier and also submitted joint memorandum to the President on the 15 ^th Finance Commission issue, but this time, the agenda is broadened with the 2019 Lok Sabha polls getting closer and also five assembly elections lined up for November and December before that.

Kejriwal has been part of the opposition unity group formed by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu among others and the entire effort of holding conclaves in different parts of the country to mobilise forces against the ruling BJP is part of the plan to get more parties together on the opposition unity forum along with Congress, with issues on the ground to hit out at the ruling BJP and the Modi government and create campaign issues against it for the 2019 polls.

Andhra CM and TDP chief Naidu has been active at keeping the opposition unity together and has worked it out for the Telengana assembly polls scheduled for December 7, with TDP tying up with TJS and CPI and Congress to make it a bigger opposition chunk that could ensure that votes against the ruling TRS in the state does not split. Naidu’s efforts are to ensure that the same model is replicated at the national level, just like mobilizations to form earlier coalitions like the National Front (1989 to 1991) and United Front (1996-1998), where TDP played a crucial mover.