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Business News/ News / India/  Ahead of Parliament session, opposition in a state of disarray
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Ahead of Parliament session, opposition in a state of disarray

There is growing unease among alliance partners, apart from reports of infighting among top leaders
  • First parliamentary session of the 17th Lok Sabha will begin on 17 June and continue till 26 July
  • The largest opposition party Congress with 52 seats still falls short to claim the Leader of Opposition role. (PTI)Premium
    The largest opposition party Congress with 52 seats still falls short to claim the Leader of Opposition role. (PTI)

    NEW DELHI : New Delhi: From the recent split between the Samajwadi Party (SP)-Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alliance in Uttar Pradesh, to the attempts of keeping the house in order for Congress-Janata Dal (Secuar) alliance in Karnataka, deepening of crisis in Maharashtra Congress, unease among other alliance partners and infighting among senior Congress leaders has put the opposition block in disarray just days ahead of the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha which is set to convened.

    For the opposition, the scale of challenge particularly in the lower house can be understood from the fact that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) have notched up 353 out of the 543 seats leaving a reduced space for the opposition. While officially, the largest opposition party Congress with 52 seats still falls short to claim the Leader of Opposition role, the mandate would require opposition parties to come together both inside and outside the Parliament to challenge the government on policy issues.

    However, at a time when the index of opposition unity could be put to test in Parliament, two big regional partners – Mayawati led BSP and Akhilesh Yadav led SP – split ways just five months after joining hands on Tuesday. Both parties which were seen as a key challenger to the NDA in Uttar Pradesh faced a drubbing in recently concluded Lok Sabha elections and have now decided to contest assembly bypolls in the state alone.

    In southern region too, the opposition is bearing the brunt of a disappointing mandate. While the Congress-JDS alliance is making all attempts to keep its house in order, the results have also put Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu in a low key spot. In the run up to the polls, Naidu was considered to be the biggest champion of opposition voice who undertook several meetings to bring together leaders of all the key opposition parties.

    “A mandate like this has its fallouts and naturally there will be some initial rough edges but we are all united in this together. All the key opposition parties irrespective of whether they contest assembly polls together or not, are opposed to the policies of the BJP and this will be reflected when the Parliament session begins this month," a senior Congress leader said requesting anonymity. “We cannot speak for other alliances but in Karnataka the alliance is working perfectly well. Our party performed well in the local body polls too," the leader added.

    The Congress itself is in a tight spot with growing reports of infighting among its top leaders. On Tuesday, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot clarified his recent remarks in an interview to television channel ABP News where he said that his deputy Sachin Pilot should take responsibility of defeat of his son Vaibhav Gehlot in Jodhpur seat. On Tuesday,Ashok Gehlot put out a tweet saying 'some sections of media are making unnecessary issue out of the context'.

    Similar undercurrents are being felt in Punjab where the rift between chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and his minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has intensified. While Singh had said that the party in Punjab performed poorly in urban areas and Sidhu was the minister for urban development, the latter had hid out at the chief minister for unfairly “singling out" for the party's performance.

    Meanwhile, in the backdrop of growing troubles within the opposition parties, the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha will begin on 17 June and continue till 26 July. The Speaker of the lower house will be likely appointed on 19 June.

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    Published: 05 Jun 2019, 10:41 AM IST
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