Not right time to discuss 2024 opposition unity, primary focus on 2023 Assembly polls: Congress

Jairam Ramesh said that in four out of five state polls slated to take place in 2023, Congress will directly go up against the ruling BJP. Noting that Assembly elections would, at the moment, occupy the attention of Congress leadership due to its urgency, the veteran reminded that the party formed the UPA coalition only after the completion of polls back in 2004, writes ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi:The Congress on Thursday said that the time was not right to discuss Opposition unity in the country for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, noting that the party, in the first place, would have to contest elections in multiple states in 2023. “The time for discussing opposition unity for the 2024 national elections will come. At present, we have to prepare for the 2023 assembly polls,” the party's communications in charge Jairam Ramesh said before the opening of the Plenary session in Chhattisgarh's Raipur on February 23.

"There will be assembly polls in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Telangana. We are in power in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. We were in power in Madhya Pradesh where our government was toppled in March 2020. We are the main opposition in Karnataka and we have around 28 per cent vote share in Telangana" he said. “If there has to be any alliance for 2024 it has to be based on a common programme if not a common minimum programme and not merely a negative agenda" he said.

This comes amid a backdrop where Congress currently faces a direct fight against the BJP in four of the five states, barring Telangana, where the grand old party will take on the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

“The issue needs more consultation. Before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the state polls are more important,” he said. Noting Congress was well-apprised of its role to forge opposition unity, the party veteran noted that "such opposition unity was not possible without a strong Congress." The Rajya Sabha member also observed that it was wrong to say "the issue of alliances was a new one” as the grand old party already had pacts with regional parties in states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Bihar and Maharashtra.

“While all these alliances in the states were pre-poll, the United Progressive Alliance at the Centre was formed after the 2004 Lok Sabha elections,” he said, indicating the grand old party wanted to have more states in its bag before discussing its exact role in the national coalition for 2024. The veteran leader's comments come a day after party MP Rahul Gandhi slammed the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress during an election rally in Shillong, Meghalaya, where five Congress lawmakers had earlier joined the West Bengal-based party.

In his speech, Rahul accused the TMC of contesting the 2022 Goa assembly elections in order to dent Congress votes in the state. Counterfire arrived subsequently from Abhishek Banerjee, who questioned Congress' move to contest 92 seats in the West Bengal assembly polls in 2021, claiming it was meant to help the BJP.

Ramesh, on his part, highlighted on Thursday that any political side which wished to be a part of the 2024 alliance would have to criticize the Modi government's policies in clear terms and not in hushed tones.

“Everyone has seen that the Congress is the only party that has consistently questioned the policies of the Modi government, particularly over the Adani-Hindenburg issue. While all the parties were one on demanding a JPC probe into the issue, one party wanted a Supreme Court probe. Why? All parties in any such coalition will have to criticise the Modi government’s policies clearly,” he stated.