The INDIA bloc has to fix the seat-sharing arrangement at the earliest and this has to be negotiated harmoniously for it to be effective in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Samajwadi Party secretary general Ram Gopal Yadav said in an interview to The Hindu, ahead of the bloc’s meeting on December 19. He maintained that irrespective of the recent Assembly election results, caste census would remain central to the Opposition campaign in 2024 and also indicated that the SP-Congress dispute over Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh stood resolved.
“There is only one priority before us, the 2024 general elections. The dominant party in a State — like the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, the DMK in Tamil Nadu and the RJD-JD(U) combine in Bihar, should take the lead in working out the seat-sharing formula. Everyone should cooperate and harmoniously we should arrive at an acceptable formula for INDIA bloc to be an effective alternative in 2024,” Mr. Yadav said.
The Congress’s defeat in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, which together send 65 MPs to the Lok Sabha, as per political observers, reinforced the BJP’s stranglehold on the Hindi belt States. There were no permanent trends in politics, Mr. Yadav asserted, rejecting the contention.
“We have seen the era of Congress’s dominance. Could anyone back then predict the Congress’s present day condition,” he said. The BJP’s dominance, he added, was aided by the “atmosphere of fear” created by the Central investigative agencies. “People are afraid to speak up. But they will stand up when it becomes unbearable,” Mr. Yadav remarked. The BJP’s victory had also spurred a debate on the north-south divide, which Mr. Yadav dismissed it as a farcical discourse promoted by a few for their own interests. “This is against the nation’s interest and will have a long-lasting negative impact on our country’s integrity. Those who talk about this so-called divide for political dividend are truly despicable and are clearly indulging in treason,” Mr. Yadav alleged.
In a sign that the SP and the Congress had buried the hatchet after the bitter exchange between the two sides over the latter’s refusal to concede five seats in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, Mr. Yadav said the issue was in the past and it would have no bearing on the seat negotiations between the two in Uttar Pradesh.
Ram temple
One of the key promises made by the BJP in the run-up to elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan is to facilitate pilgrimage to the upcoming Ram temple in Ayodhya which will be inaugurated on January 22. And all signs point towards it being a central campaign theme for the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Despite facing erosion in its core vote bank of Yadavs who have gravitated in the last two elections towards the BJP’s Hindutva pitch, Mr. Yadav does not see any correlation between the temple inauguration and the general elections. “The BJP wants to connect the two. But they are not the only Ram bhakts and not everyone who will come to the new temple is going to be a BJP bhakt,” Mr. Yadav proclaimed. The BJP, he contended, had already drawn whatever electoral benefit it had to draw from the Ram temple issue and there was nothing more left.
For the Opposition, Mr. Yadav noted, the caste census would remain one of the key campaign points. He brushed off the BJP criticism that the Opposition was being regressive by reviving the dated caste-centric politics. “How is this dated? There are several caste groups that do not have a single person among them to occupy even the post of a peon, forget about IAS officers,” he said. This was a matter of life and death for people and a question of their dignity. “This issue will remain alive till the time 80% of the population get their share,” he asserted.
With a unanimous decision in the last three meetings of the INDIA bloc not to have a convener or a united prime ministerial face, the Opposition in 2024 will again face the question “Modi versus who?” This, according to Mr. Yadav is not a problem for the Opposition. “In democracy, when you start leaning towards the theory of indispensability, then you are headed towards dictatorship. In politics no one is irreplaceable. The BJP, in fact, is signing on their death warrant — by over reliance on Narendra Modi. When Modi will no longer be around, what would they be left with — a Zero. They are culling their own leadership.”
