That said, it will be hard keeping the national media’s focus on the Patna Conclave. At least the national electronic media will remain glued to Modi hogging limelight. If the Prime Minister inks major India-US deals, defence and business, those too will keep the focus on the Prime Minister’s US sojourn. Not surprisingly, almost every television news channel has sent a correspondent and video-journalist to the US to cover Modi’s every move.

Therefore, for the Patna Conclave to get precedence will require the opposition parties to remain grounded and focused on the job at hand, i.e., achieving opposition unity at any cost, regardless of turf battles and bloated egos. Petty political differences should be left at the gates of the conclave.

Sadly that is a tall task. True to character, the opposition parties are still struck and stuck by infighting. A number of them have ganged up against the Congress. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who wants the Congress to support the AAP to defeat Modi’s ordinance in the Rajya Sabha, wants the Congress to keep out of Delhi for 2024.

Ditto Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. All three of these “regional satraps” want Congress-free 2024 general elections in their respective states. And that is not gonna happen; so, what’s gonna happen?

Reports say Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar do not want contentious issues to be raked up at the conclave. And Modi’s Delhi ordinance is one of them. But Kejriwal is not willing to give in. He believes the Delhi services ordinance has in it the potential to defeat the BJP even ahead of 2024.

The Delhi Chief Minister is adamant the ordinance remains top of the Patna Conclave’s agenda. Kejriwal does not look like he will bend to reason or opposition. Without the ordinance out of the way, Kejriwal is only half the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar, and Bhagwant Mann, are.

Forging a front of opposition parties isn’t easy and meeting at one place like the opposition parties did in 1977 doesn’t guarantee opposition unity. The Congress will not bow to AAP “blackmail”. Or to Samajwadi Party’s call for a “Congress-mukt 2024 general elections” in Uttar Pradesh. The Trinamool Congress is also asking for something that just isn’t acceptable in a democracy.

That said, the presence of the Congress at the Patna Conclave will be a source of unease to some of the Opposition. Maybe it is a throwback to 1977 when the opposition parties led by ‘JP’ got together to defeat the autocratic Indira Gandhi’s Congress. Decades later, the only difference is that an autocratic Narendra Modi has replaced Indira Gandhi with the vibes remaining the same.

Akhilesh Yadav says he will attend the conclave but insisted ”whosoever is strongest, fighting against the BJP, and in a position to defeat the BJP in that particular state should be supported by the joint opposition in that state." The Congress opposed saying, "AAP says leave Delhi and Punjab, Akhilesh says leave UP, Mamata says leave West Bengal, KCR says leave Telangana... Is this unity, or Congress-mukt country?"

Chances are Modi will return from his US tour with the opposition parties still scattered and dispersed. The Aam Aadmi Party has already started its Rajasthan elections campaign with both the Congress and the BJP in the crosshairs. Ashok Gehlot isn’t happy. Kejriwal says Gehlot has been stealing from AAP’s ‘Delhi Model’.

It’s a similar story with the Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s K Chandrashekar Rao, who looks at the Congress as its primary adversary. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his New York luxury hotel, where the tariff ranges from Rs 48,000 per night to Rs 12.15 lakh per night, must be abreast of all these developments – one ear and eye focused on the Patna Conclave. It’s highly unlikely that somebody who lives the luxury life of the Indian Prime Minister will easily lose a general election. The opposition parties have no option but to make the Patna Conclave a success. (IPA Service)