The rout in Lok Sabha elections has forced some Opposition parties to rethink on their strategy vis-à-vis their alliances, especially for the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament.
According to a report by the Economic Times, while some parties are still willing to join hands with other opposition members so as to project themselves as an anti-BJP force, others want to go solo.
Sources told the newspaper that the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) decided not to attend a meeting of allies and Opposition parties chaired by Sonia Gandhi on June 18. The reason, according to the report, was because the three parties want to have their own floor strategy in Parliament.
"There is no election nearby and there is no need of a joint opposition strategy," an SP leader said, adding that a decision regarding alliances will be taken as and when needed. The BSP and the SP, which had come together to fight the Lok Sabha elections, have decided to part ways.
BSP chief Mayawati had announced that the party would go alone during the upcoming Assembly bypolls. Reiterating the same sentiment, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav also announced that the party will go solo in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
The report states that while the Congress is seeking an alliance of Opposition parties in Parliament, it has also made some moves which might not go down well with prospective allies.
For instance, Congress made Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury the leader of the party in the Lower House of Parliament. The report states that Chowdhury is a strong opponent of the TMC, and has accused the Mamata Banerjee-led party of poaching Congress legislators in West Bengal. Chowdhury was also removed as the president of Bengal Congress before the polls, reportedly due to his opposition to the TMC.
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Meanwhile in Bihar, according to the report, Congress leaders want to go alone and distance Congress from Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Congress and RJD had contested the general elections together, but managed to win only one of 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state (Congress had won the lone seat while the RJD drew a blank).
"A section of voters who want to vote us don’t come to us only because we are an RJD ally," a Congress legislator in the state told the newspaper. RJD, on its part, wants to maintain the alliance, the report states.
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