Presidential contest an opportunity for Congress to forge opposition unity ahead of 2024 polls

At the same time, the Congress strategists realized the need to avoid a big brother kind of attitude and made a tactical decision not to suggest a nominee for the Presidential contest to keep the opposition camp together, writes ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi:The Presidential polls next month are both an opportunity and a challenge before Congress to test its ability to play an opposition anchor ahead of the 2024 national elections. The Congress has shrunk across the country but is still the single largest party in the opposition camp and believes itself to be a natural opposition anchor, both for the Presidential elections and till the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

At the same time, the Congress strategists realized the need to avoid a big brother kind of attitude and made a tactical decision not to suggest a nominee for the Presidential contest to keep the opposition camp together. Though Congress chief Sonia Gandhi took the lead in forging opposition unity over the issue, she later allowed West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee to play an active role in convening an opposition conclave in Delhi on June 16 to discuss the probable names for the Presidential contest.

However, one after the other, the names suggested by Mamata Banerjee-NCP leader Sharad Pawar, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader, Farooq Abdullah-withdrew their candidature, citing personal reasons. Banerjee then floated the name of party leader Yashwant Sinha, who was accepted as the joint opposition nominee for the July 18 Presidential polls. Though Sinha’s candidature has given a leg up to the TMC’s national aspirations, the challenge before the opposition parties is to put up a good fight against the NDA’s Presidential nominee Draupadi Murmu.

Keeping that in mind, a multi-party, 11-member group has been set up to manage Yashwant Sinha’s campaign and will be coordinated by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh. Besides Ramesh, the other members of the group include Tiruchi Siva from DMK, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy from TMC, Sitaram Yechury from CPI-M, D Raja from CPI, Ram Gopal Yadav from SP, Praful Patel from NCP, Manoj Jha from RJD, Ranjit Reddy from TRS, and Sudheendra Kulkarni from civil society. Shiv Sena will nominate a member of the group shortly.

Sources said that the group members will coordinate and take forward Sinha’s campaign across states to get as many votes as possible for the July 18 contest. According to DMK leader Tiruchi Siva, the contest is important to preserve the spirit of federalism in the country. “We are confident. The need to preserve federalism has become strong across the country. There are challenges before federalism. After BJP came to power, salient features of the Constitution underwent strain. The rights of states are denied and minorities are feeling insecure. In this situation, we need a person as the custodian of the constitution without any favouritism,” said Siva.

“The Presidential campaign will be on this basis. We will create an impression on the voters how important this election is and how important our candidate is,” he said, adding, “the role of Congress in the campaign is as important as any other party.” “This is an ideological fight not a contest between two individuals,” said CPI leader D Raja.