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With the Lok Sabha 2024 elections fast approaching, senior leaders from different regional parties — in an apparent show of unity — called for forming a united front against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), from the dais of the Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD’s) Samman Diwas Rally in Haryana’s Fatehabad district on September 25.
Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) Nitish Kumar, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, and Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury were among the leaders in attendance at the INLD’s rally, which was organised to mark the 109th birth anniversary of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal.
According to political experts, the rally was the first successful attempt toward a united Opposition after the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Still, the shape of the Opposition unity is not clear because there’s no clarity on Congress’ role in the united front, they said.
“Only a united front can challenge the BJP, not a third front. If the Congress doesn’t join the united front, it will hardly impact the ruling party,” one of the experts said.
The Congress was not invited to the INLD rally. But Nitish Kumar, while speaking at the rally, stressed there was “no question” of forming a Third Front as he called upon parties to cobble together a single front, which includes the Congress.
Hours after the rally, he and RJD founder Lalu Prasad met Congress President Sonia Gandhi to discuss the contours of Opposition unity. “Everybody will come on one platform for holding talks and dethroning the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” Yadav said, following their meeting.
According to political experts, the Fatehabad rally was the INLD's effort to re-claim Devi Lal’s legacy and revive the party which has not been in power since 2005. In the 2019 Haryana Assembly polls, a majority of the INLD’s core voters shifted to the Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janata Party lock, stock, and barrel.
Vijay Chauhan, assistant professor and head of the Department of Political Science, Maharana Pratap National College, Mullana, said: “With this rally, the INLD tried to project itself as a party of farmers, a community that was represented by Devi Lal. The INLD is targeting the Assembly elections in 2024, not the Lok Sabha elections.”
The INLD is looking to make a comeback in the state riding on the support it extended to farmers when they were struggling against the now-withdrawn three central farm laws.
INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala also promised an old age pension of Rs 10,000, if the party is voted to power in the 2024 Haryana polls. Senior citizens form a key vote bank of INLD since 1987 when the then chief minister Devi Lal introduced an old age pension in the state.
It was one of the biggest rallies for the INLD after the party’s Gohana rally in 2018.
The 2018 rally had created a rift in the Chautala family, leading to a split in the party and the formation of JJP. Later, the JJP went on to win 10 seats in the 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls, while the INLD could bag just one.
Dushyant Chautala joined hands with the BJP and became deputy CM.
According to experts, with the NDA shrinking since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, with the Akali Dal, Shiv Sena (later a faction joined hands with the BJP), and JD (U) leaving the alliance, if opposition leaders join hands to form a united front, they can pose a serious challenge to the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. “The INLD rally does not hold any relevance at the national level but it gave hope to the Opposition of an upcoming unity,” experts said.
And, for the INLD, it sent a message to Haryana voters that the party is alive and kicking.
