NDA vs INDIA: The battle has begun

On Tuesday, the national capital and the IT capital of the country witnessed two simultaneous shows of strength – in Delhi, 38 parties small and big took part in the meeting of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Closer here in Bengaluru, the show was no less dazzling with leaders of 26 national and regional parties putting their heads together to come up with an effective alternative to defeat the NDA, when the next Parliament polls are due in April-May, 2024.

The stark contrast between the two fronts was amply evident – the most prominent faces among those who attended the NDA meet were Ajit Pawar of the NCP faction, Eknath Shinde of Shiv Sena and Edappadi Palaniswamy of the AIADMK.

Besides of course PM Modi and his colleagues like Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and Amit Shah. Interestingly, this is the first such meeting of the NDA during the second term of the Modi government.

In contrast, the array of leaders attending the Opposition conclave was without doubt much more impressive – there were Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, and there were leaders from the north, south, east and west of the country, waiting to contribute their mite to the formation of an invincible front to topple the BJP led government.

They included the irrepressible Mamata Banerjee from Bengal and Bhagwant Mann from Punjab, Mehbooba Mufti from Kashmir and MK Stalin from Tamil Nadu, Hemant Soren from Jharkhand, Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar from Bihar and Arvind Kejriwal from Delhi. Also in attendance were luminaries of national politics like Sharad Pawar (NCP), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and D Raja of the CPI.

A simple comparison would show that though the Opposition combine would command the loyalty of only around 150 MPs in Parliament compared to the BJP-led NDA’s 300 plus seats, the spread and sphere of influence of the national opposition is much more than that of the NDA including the BJP.

A look at the NDA lineup would also expose its glaring inadequacies compared to the Opposition front – leave aside the BJP, Shinde Sena, the NCP faction of Ajit Pawar and the AIADMK, there are hardly any known parties among the 38-strong NDA; most of its formidable allies have drifted away in the course of five years since the last Parliament polls in 2019, including the JD(U) and the united Shiv Sena.

A good number of NDA constituents are small parties from the North-East and south, which have a miniscule presence in Parliament and the state Assemblies.

What lesson does one draw from this? It obviously means that the BJP has driven away most of its one-time allies because of its hunger for a greater share of the power pie and its not-so-hidden tendency to obliterate smaller parties.

What also worked to the detriment of the NDA was the reluctance of the saffronists to accept the basic rule of coalition politics – that the bigger partner would have to sacrifice for smaller units and make sure their viewpoint on national issues and economic policies are suitably accommodated.

It’s still too early to conclude that the BJP finally has an effective opposition front staring at it in the face with the potential to oust it from power.

’INDIA’ as the new front has been named, will have to come up with a national face to counter PM Modi, a campaign strategy and tactics for effective co-ordination among the many parties.

Seat sharing is not going to be easy considering that many parties are fierce rivals in their respective states.

But a solid foundation has been laid and obstacles however un-surmountable they may seem, will easily fade away provided there is a resolute commitment to re-establish what our founding fathers dreamt of – a secular, liberal and just nation where religious bias, chauvinism and hate politics have no place.