RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday said that the Congress is a national party with a pan-India presence and it is quite natural that it should be the basis of any national alliance against the BJP-led NDA. In an interview with PTI, he also said that the Congress is in a direct fight with the BJP in over 200 Lok Sabha seats and regional parties should focus on them while allowing them to remain in the driver’s seat in other constituencies.
Asked about the meeting of opposition leaders and several civil society members at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Samhav Pawar’s house last week, the RJD leader said he was not aware of what happened in the meeting. However, the former deputy chief minister of Bihar insisted that certainly all like-minded parties must come up with a common minimum program to defeat “this most oppressive, divisive, authoritarian and fascist government”. “Our leader Lalu (Yadav) ji had warned earlier. Till the 2014 elections – ‘Yeh chuna tega ke desh totega ya bachega (this election will decide whether the country will remain or divided)’, and I think our country’s Most of the parties and citizens have realized this today like never before,” said Yadav. On the Congress not attending the meeting and whether the oldest party should be part of the national alliance to take on the BJP, he said. That the Congress is a national party with an all-India presence and naturally “should be the basis of any national alliance against the BJP-led NDA”.
Yadav said the Congress was in a direct fight with the BJP and not regional parties in over 200 seats. “From past experiences, I feel that the Congress should focus on those seats where it is in a direct fight with the BJP and the remaining seats with an open heart and mind to root out the regional parties in the driving seat in their respective bastions. Should give. BJP,” he argued.
His remark assumes significance as a few days back Pawar had said that the Congress will have to be taken along if an alternative alliance is to be formed. Significantly, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut had also said on Saturday that the work of bringing all the opposition parties together at the national level is going on and without the Congress this alliance will be incomplete. He had said that the Congress will play an important role in the alliance which aims to provide a strong alternative to the present government.
NCP chief Pawar had on Friday claimed that the formation of any national alliance was not a matter of discussion at the meeting of eight opposition parties organized by him, but added that if such an alliance emerges, his leadership will have to be “collective”. Will have to be He had told reporters that the purpose of the meeting at his Delhi residence last Tuesday was to discuss how they can support the ongoing farmers’ movement. There was speculation that the agenda of the meeting, where no Congress leader was present, was one to be discussed. Possible alliance which can be an alternative to BJP.
Asked what would be the nature of the alliance against the BJP in the future and what would be the place of the Congress in it, Pawar said, “There was no discussion on this, but I think the Congress will need to be taken along.” There has to be an alternative alliance.”
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