Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut has already spoken of such a front with the assertion that Congress should be the “soul” of such a group. He evidently wants to give the example of the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which is made up of the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, to underline the Congress’s value.

The Shiv Sena spokesman’s emphasis on the 136-year-old Grand Old Party is apparently in line with his belief that the nation’s survival during the Covid-19 crisis is largely due to the institutional structures which the Congress built when it was in power. However, he clarified that the question of who will lead the mahagathbandhan will be decided later.

But whoever is the leader, the contours of the new formation are slowly becoming clear. Apart from the three MVA parties, there will naturally be the new heroine of opposition politics, Mamata Banerjee, and the other winners in the recent assembly elections – the DMK in Tamil Nadu and the CPI(M), CPI in Kerala .. The front-runner in the UP panchayat polls, the Samajwadi Party, is another contender for membership.

Unlike Mamata, who put up a spirited fight against the BJP, Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party didn’t have to exert himself to come out on top in the panchayat polls since he apparently depended solely on the Yogi Adityanath government’s mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis to rake in the votes for the BJP’s primary opponent in the state. The outcome shows yet again that the people vote against a government when it stumbles with the result that the beneficiary is whoever happens to be around on the opposing side. It is anti-incumbency which is the deciding factor.

Apart from the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) also gained in the elections. But does this make them eligible for the mahagathbandhan’s membership? Perhaps the RLD’s case can be favourably considered, but there are bound to be doubts about the BSP considering that it has shown a tendency to lean towards the BJP as on the eve of the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections in 2018 when the BSP cut off its ties with the Congress, allegedly under pressure from the Centre, according to Congress leader Digvijay Singh.

Like the BSP, there are other parties which, too, seemingly like to play footsie with the BJP. These include the Biju Janata Dal of Odisha, the YSR Congress of Andhra Pradesh and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi. It is possible, however, that the apparent preference of these parties to be on the winning side will make them reassess their political position if there is any decline in the BJP’s fortunes because of its bungling on the Covid front. Even then, their opportunistic instincts are bound to raise doubts about their inclusion in an anti-BJP group.

The Aam Admi Party’s (AAP) absence from those who signed the letter of 12 opposition parties to the prime minister also underlines suspicions about its reliability, which were substantiated by the clearance given by the Delhi government under it for the prosecution of the former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader, Kanhaiya Kumar, on the charges of sedition.

Unlike these doubtful parties, there are others whose place in the mahagathbandhan is assured. They include the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the National Conference and perhaps also the People’s Democratic Front if Mehbooba Mufti becomes more diplomatic in her utterances.

The elephant in the room is, of course, the leadership question. Mamata Banerjee’s spectacular success against what appeared to be insuperable odds – the BJP’s money and muscle power (imported from UP?), the prime minister’s rhetorical flourishes although he may have overplayed his hand with his Didi-o-Didi jibes– go in her favour.

But the doughty street fighter may be a favourite of hoi polloi, but she lacks the gravitas needed in a prime minister. Plain sarees and rubber slippers can endear her to the masses, but a prime minister has to be a person of poise and intellectual sharpness.

Her lack of command over English and Hindi is another disadvantage. The one-time Congress strong man, K. Kamaraj’s memorable response when asked to succeed Lal Bahadur Shastri as the PM –“no Hindi, no English, how ? ” – underlines the importance of being fluent in at least one of these two languages, preferably Hindi, in order to gain prominence and acceptability at the national level.

Rahul Gandhi is fluent in both the languages, but he has the air of a sophomore who cannot be taken seriously. Sharad Pawar might have fitted the bill, but he is apparently not well enough for the job. Yet, the time is clearly ripe for a change of guard because the BJP has never been more vulnerable. The hour is here, the moment needs right person for leadership.(IPA Service)