A day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said he was waiting for a signal from the Congress to work towards bringing all the Opposition parties together, the Congress on Sunday said the party knows its “role” very well and argued that Opposition unity would be neither possible nor successful without it.
The Congress also took a dig at some of the Opposition parties, saying it was not like some of the parties that attend opposition meetings but act in the interest of the BJP later. Arguing that it was the only party to have never compromised with the BJP, the Congress said it did not require a certificate from anyone to take the lead.
The Congress welcomed Kumar’s statement and said it would decide on issues such as Opposition unity at the forthcoming All India Congress Committee (AICC) plenary session in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Around 15,000 delegates, including 1,800 AICC delegates, from across the country are expected to attend the session.
“We know our role very well. The Congress is the only political party that has not compromised with the BJP. Many Opposition parties sit in meetings called by (Mallikarjun) Kharge but their actions later are in favour of the ruling party. We are not two-faced. We have only one face…,” Congress communications head Jairam Ramesh said at a press conference alongside top leaders K C Venugopal, Kumari Selja, Tariq Anwar, and Pawan Kumar Bansal.
Venugopal said the Congress had already taken an initiative to bring together like-minded Opposition parties. “During the Bharat Jodo Yatra, we invited like-minded political parties to join and have a common fight against the BJP government. Most of the like-minded political parties joined … In Parliament, the entire Opposition joined together on the Adani issue… There is a clearcut initiative from the Congress,” he said.
Recalling that Kharge had convened a series of meetings of Opposition parties in Parliament, he said, “We welcome the statement of Nitish Kumar… certainly Congress will do the party’s role in a bigger manner. The plenary will be a platform for all of this, the direction will come (from the plenary).”
On Kumar’s remarks that the BJP would not be able to cross 100 seats in the parliamentary elections next year if the Opposition unites, Venugopal said, “Our job is to do that only. Our main job is to lessen the numbers of BJP.”
Talking about the Adani row, Ramesh said the Congress had demanded the setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to investigate the allegations. “Many parties stood with us … some did not accept the demand for a JPC. They said there should be a Supreme Court probe … That was also a political step so that the Prime Minister escapes from this.”
“So we don’t need a certificate from anyone that we need to take the lead because any Opposition unity will be unsuccessful without the Congress. We know that. We welcome Nitish’s statement, we will discuss all this in the plenary whether there should be an alliance before elections or after,” Ramesh said, adding that strong Opposition unity was not possible without a strong Congress.
Ramesh said the Congress was already in alliances with other parties in several states. “When it comes to alliances, you forget that we are in alliance in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Maharashtra, Jharkhand … we are in alliances in many Northeastern states. It is wrong to say that the Congress does not enter into alliances before elections. There are many states where we are in alliances before the elections.”
Venugopal said the plenary would be attended by 15,000 delegates from across the country. “There will be 1,825 AICC delegates, out of which 1,338 are elected AICC delegates and 487 are co-opted members,” he said. There will be 9,915 elected delegates from Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs) and 3000 co-opted members.
Selja said of the 1,800 odd AICC delegates, 704 are from the general category and 228 are from minority communities. As many as 381 are from other backward classes, 192 belong to Scheduled Caste groups and 192 are from Scheduled Tribes. There are 235 women delegates and 501 are below the age of 50 years.
