For accomplishing her mission she has not only to make agree the opposition parties to come together, instead she has to counsel and motivate the Congress leaders to forget the wrangling and join hands to fight the bigger enemy. In a natural way Rahul should have taken the initiative and dispel the misgivings nursed by his own party leaders. But he did not. As a natural corollary to the existing political compulsions he should have projected the Congress as the fulcrum of the opposition unity. Mamata’s meeting with Congress veterans Kamal Nath, Anand Sharma and Abhishek Manu Singhvi was an exercise to rejuvenate the Congress, the party to which she once belonged before floating her own Trinamool. More than a Congress leader, she realises the fact a weak Congress would not be an effective instrument to fight the RSS-Modi regime

Though he has been setting the agenda and using all the available occasions to corner and put Narendra Modi in tight corner, he ironically did not use the last two years to enthuse his party men and motivate them. No one knows what is in his mind and what his plan is. In any case, whether he intends to carry along the present set of old leaders or discard and drop them, he should make a candid and clear statement. And further delay in making his plan clear would severely damage the prospect of the opposition unity.

During her stay in Delhi, Mamata through her action has conveyed to all the opposition parties and forces that Congress cannot be ignored and it will be the major partner in the proposed front of the anti-BJP opposition parties. This she has been doing in the backdrop when some of the regional and opposition parties nurse antagonistic relations with the Congress. Akhilesh Yadav, chief of Samajwadi Party has been a bitter critic of Congress and he has already made his intentions clear to go alone to the 2022 assembly polls.

Rahul Gandhi must make his stand clear and manifest his sincerity by speaking on behalf of the Congress which would incidentally bring about fundamental change in the national political scenario. He has been guiding the Congress, as was seen in the case of defusing the Punjab crisis, but now the time has come to lead from the front as it rejuvenate the secular and socialist forces to take on the BJP in 2024 elections.

With massive mandate in Bengal and people in other states looking towards to take the bull by horns, Sonia Gandhi must take a decisive and bold step, consult her allies. and install Mamata as the UPA chief. She has already emerged as the mature leader who can take on Modi, besides she has also worked out a concrete political strategy to check the Modi juggernaut and enjoys the trust of other opposition leaders. Incidentally even SP is on record that the party can work with Mamata.

The most positive achievement would be Modi and his collaborators would not raise the issue of dynasty. A large section of the people who had turned hostile to Congress would eventually prefer to side with Mamata. The opposition sharing a common objective would help them defeat the BJP in their own states. This would have subjective and arithmetical implication. While it would the send a strong psychological message that opposition is really united, it would add the numerical strength of the allies.

An astute politician, Mamata leading the opposition as the UPA chief, would bring about a major perceptional change. Mamata is right in saying; “The BJP may look very healthy, but from the political angle, the Opposition will be stronger this time…. We hope that the 2024 elections will be Hope 24”. Mamata could win the Bengal assembly election only for the reason that she understood the mood and desire of the people. People were getting frustrated due to Modi’s jumlas and his theatrics. She rightly said; “A lot of people who used to support them don’t anymore. We have seen a lot of ‘achchhe din (good days)’, now we want to see ‘sachche din (days of truth)’.

There is no denying the fact that a united Opposition was needed to capitalise on this mood. People are ready but it is the opposition that is lagging behind. Before holding of the Bengal election, people would usually ask who can replace Modi. The same question was raised by the people across India. But now they have got the person in Mamata. They have come to perceive that here is a leader who can challenge Modi.

But it is also a fact that the opposition parties ought to keep a close watch on the designs and activities of Modi. Just ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, a simmering discontent was visible in the people against him. The political situation prevailing at that time gave rise to an expectation that Congress would improve its position. Once again Congress lost but it won four seats more than it had in 2014. In 2019 Mamata had brought together representatives of 23 Opposition parties at a rally in Calcutta. In retrospect it can safely be said that election became the victim of Pegasus. That was the period when the operation surveillance was at the peak and opposition was under severe scanner.

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor besides strategising the poll mechanism, will also have to be alert to such devious designs of the BJP which it may use to completely usurp the peoples’ mandate. One thing is absolutely clear that Modi and his colleagues will not deter from resorting to any mechanism to get a victory. For them an electoral victory is more precious and important than preserving the institution of democracy. In their perception democracy is subservient to electoral victory.

Simply having nice meeting is not an indicator of evolution of homogeneity. It must get reflected in the actions of the leaders. Never in the past India has been faced with this kind of situation where the basic identity of the country has been on stake, where the ruler has been concerned of his own financial interest than salvaging the economic condition of the country, the ruler has been determined to trample the rule of Constitution and turn the country into the torture cell of Nazis. The latest report on Indian media reveal that 226 journalists were brutalised and 13 were killed in Uttar Pradesh, the laboratory of Hindutva and RSS fascism.

Since Mamata mooted the proposal for an Opposition platform to take on the BJP in her July 21 address and her party raised the anti-BJP pitch in Parliament, she has emerged as the main architect of the proposed front. Nonetheless her humility ought to be appreciated as instead of forcing her leadership on others she prefers to insist that she is neither the face of the front nor its main force. “I am a cadre. I want to help in belling the cat…. I am not a VIP” she added, making it clear that she was not interested in proposing a pole position for herself in the front.

The clarification was significant as Trinamool MPs had earlier in the day proposed at a meeting that she should lead the fight against the BJP and be the face of the Opposition. Aware that such an endorsement may come in the way of the front even before its broad contours are defined, Mamata has been cautious on the question of leadership of the alliance.

“I am not a political astrologer who can answer questions on leadership of the front…. Everything will depend on the situation”. Her primary mission is to defeat Modi is manifest in her assertion; “The country will fight against Modi…. A lot of faces will come up to save our democracy.” Emphasising on the need for expanding the base of the alliance against the BJP, she referred to the Bengal polls which witnessed a triangular fight among the BJP, Trinamool and the Congress-CPM alliance. But it is encouraging that now CPI(M) has come to realise the futility of pursuing that political line. In the changed situation the left party is willing to join hands with Mamata to fight BJP-RSS.

Also a BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh has filed a petition before the Supreme Court to take action against Mamata government for post poll violence. The NHRC report had named several current and former lawmakers of the Trinamool Congress, including a senior minister, in its list of 123 “notorious criminals/goons”. In the report, the committee had made several remarks in virtual echo of the BJP, describing the Bengal situation as “a manifestation of “law of ruler”, instead of “rule of law”, and calling the alleged violence “retributive”, perpetrated by the ruling party against supporters of “the main Opposition party”.

It is strange that some opposition leaders are still not mentally and physically ready to begin the battle against Modi. For them time awaits. The fact is they are unable to comprehend the striking power of Modi-RSS combine. In sharp contrast Mamata has already started stressing that the planning for a united fight must start now. “The Lok Sabha polls are still some time away, but it’s also true that the planning has to start well in advance. You know that the elections for Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Tripura are approaching”.

Mamata intends to keep up the momentum she has gained from the assembly polls which she won decisively to stop the BJP. One can expect that becoming the chairperson of the Trinamool's parliamentary party will help in consolidating the opposition forces. In fact she has already announced that she would be visiting Delhi after every two month. This would reinforce her stature as the most credible face against Modi. Her instituting a judicial probe into the Pegasus scandal would instil the trust among other party leaders. (IPA Service)