As there is no unanimity among the Opposition parties on whether to draft a common minimum programme ahead of the Lok Sabha elections or not, the joint meeting scheduled to be held here on Wednesday is likely to discuss the developments after the Pulwama terror attack.
The Left parties have decided to boycott the meeting if the agenda is the drafting a common minimum programme. “We will attend if the issue is the Pulwama attack or any other relevant matter. There is no point in discussing a common minimum programme before the elections,” a senior Left leader told BusinessLine. The Opposition is worried that the BJP is using Pulwama attacks to consolidate its voter base across the country. Almost all Opposition parties had accused the BJP of politicising the attacks against the CRPF personnel. The CPI(M) and the CPI have conveyed this to senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel and Ghulam Nabi Azad, who are coordinating the meeting. It will be held at the Parliament complex on Wednesday and will be attended by leaders of the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Telugu Desam Party, the Nationalist Congress Party and others. Invitations have been extended to the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party too.
TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee were of the opinion that the parties should have a minimum programme ahead of the elections. The Left parties disagreed.
AAP to go it alone
The parties had assigned Congress President Rahul Gandhi to draft the common minimum programme in its last meeting. Within the Congress too, there are two views. The party is preparing a manifesto, and the chairman of the drafting committee and former finance minister P Chidambaram himself has met stakeholders from various sectors to hear their suggestions on the matters which could be included in the manifesto. The Congress wants to draft its manifesto first and hopes that major points in it can be added in the common minimum programme.
Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told a news channel in an interview that his party AAP will contest the Lok Sabha polls alone, as the Congress has shut the possibilities for a tie-up. He had earlier said he was tired convincing the Congress for an alliance in Delhi. “They (Congress) have refused to go for a gathbandhan (alliance). It appears they are firm,” Kejriwal told the channel.
Reiterating that the biggest challenge before the Opposition is unseating the duo of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, the AAP chief said: “Broadly, it means there will be no gathbandhan. The net result is that there will be no alliance with the Congress.”
“What is the Congress intending? They are weakening the Opposition in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal... But in Delhi, we are confident that the AAP will win all seven seats,” he added.