Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad ask Congress, Left to build anti-BJP alliance

But Opposition unity a chimera because of regional contradictions, absence of a lynchpin

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday asked the Congress and Left parties to take the initiative in forging a 'grand alliance' against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) across the country.

Kumar's ally in the Bihar government, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad also tweeted the need for such an alliance to take on Narendra Modi-led BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

But many within the Opposition space, particularly among the Left parties, believe such an effort looks could be a non-starter because of discredited leaderships of the Opposition parties and regional contradictions.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) chief Sitaram Yechury has said that a Modi-led BJP cannot be defeated just by aggregation of anti-BJP votes, or what is known as the 'index of opposition unity', but by building a narrative on the ground by raising peoples' issues.

In his tweet, Prasad tagged Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav and the Bahujan Samaj Party. He also tagged Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, but not any of the Left leaders. Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress and Left parties are rivals in Bengal.

The ongoing Parliament session saw Trinamool Congress members breaking ranks in the Rajya Sabha with other opposition parties when they staged a walk out on a vote on the Finance Bill. Party sources said it was a message to the Congress to break its alliance with the Left parties in Bengal.

After the BJP's emphatic victory in Uttar Pradesh, members of the Samajwadi Party and BSP have come together in the Rajya Sabha during the ongoing session of Parliament to jointly protest on some of the issues.

But the test of a putative SP-BSP unity will come when by-polls take place for the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat, vacated by UP CM Yogi Adityanath. Another test would be when BSP chief Mayawati's Rajya Sabha term ends in April 2018, and whether the SP would support her re-election. Mayawati cannot return to Rajya Sabha without SP's support. It remains to be seen if Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav can overcome their antipathy towards each other.

In Odisha, Biju Janata Dal members have alleged that the BJP is attempting to split the party. The BJP is emerging as the principal opposition in the state where the Biju Janata Dal and Congress have remained arch-rivals for nearly two decades now.

Pointing at their respective vote percentages, Kumar today said the BJP could have been defeated in UP if SP, BSP and Congress had come together. "I had talks with some Left leaders in this connection and I wish they take an initiative to this effect to throw the BJP-led NDA out of power in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls," he said in Patna.

The Left played a pivotal role in building an alliance of 'secular forces' in 1996 to keep BJP out of power. That government was supported by the Congress from the outside. In 2004, the Congress was the lynchpin of the 'secular' alliance, with the Left as its key ally. However, both the Congress and Left are currently at their weakest in terms of their parliamentary representation.