As Lok Sabha polls draw near, Oppn closes ranks

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird, that cannot fly,’ wrote Langston Hughes and what better words to sum up the Indian political scene today with the saffron poll machine led by Prime Minister Modi rolling ahead in the supreme confidence that the 2024 Lok Sabha polls are already won; and the Opposition INDIA alliance slowly but steadily building pacts and tying up the loose ends as its constituent parties try to ensure that no constituency goes the BJP way without a tough fight.

So even as the PM went scuba diving off the coast of his home state, Gujarat on Sunday, top guns of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav greeted each other in the Bharat Jodo Nyay yatra warming up the hearts of those desperately looking for a national alternative.

Their bonhomie happened just days after the Samajwadi Party and Congress decided to tie up in Uttar Pradesh, the biggest state which sends as many as 80 of the 543 MPs to the Lok Sabha, and in Madhya Pradesh.

Opposition pacts are happening elsewhere too - the Aam Admi Party and the Congress have decided to share the seven seats in Delhi and have successfully concluded seat sharing in Goa, Gujarat and Haryana.

While the INDIA alliance is not likely to face problems in another big state - Bihar, it is in Maharashtra with a full 48 seats and West Bengal with 42, where seat talks will prove to be nerve-wracking; in Bengal Mamata Banerjee’s TMC is intent on contesting all seats without leaving any for the Congress while in Maharashtra, the Congress, a depleted NCP and the Uddhav Sena will need to broaden their sights keeping their little differences aside if they are to beat the BJP in the state with the second highest number of seats.

In southern states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana, there may not be much hassles in working out seat arrangements.

In Odisha, Rajasthan, Punjab and the North-East, the division of seats does not look unsurmountable provided the parties concerned adopt a give and take approach.

Probably enthused by the positive moves in the opposition camp, someone like Shashi Tharoor has predicted a downslide in the BJP’s fortunes this time round.

Political strategist Prashant Kishor has added to the churn in political circles saying it is very unlikely that BJP will get 370 seats on its own in the Lok Sabha election.

With the south out of its reach and the Opposition alliance slowly but steadily taking shape in the Hindi heartland, the battle for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP does not look as easy as it was a few months ago.

There are factors of course which could still take the NDA past the winning mark - the aura of PM Modi as a global leader, the euphoric wave related by the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the string of electoral victories in state Assembly elections a few months ago.

But there are also factors which could hit the ruing front hard like price rise, unemployment, communal unease, the targeting of Opposition leaders using central agencies and the absence of an effective lineup of leaders other than PM Modi to take on stars of the Opposition head-on.

‘Abki baar 400 paar’ may seem a quite attractive slogan to adherents of the ruling party but that is easier said than done amid growing optimism in the Opposition ranks.

And for those faltering hearts in the Opposition, the words of Sir Walter Scott that ‘To the timid and hesitating everything is impossible because it seems so’ should be enough to spur them to reach the heights hitherto considered unattainable.