Rashtra Mancha!

As the All-India Trinamool Congress extended the retainership of I-CAP until 2026, as the poll strategist organization, Prashant Kishor quietly commenced his plan for a larger role for Mamata Banerjee, a PM face of the opposition in 2024. The appointment of the former BJP minister Yashwant Sinha as the Vice-President of the AITC may not have taken place without a nudge from Prashant Kishor.

I guess the resignation of Dinesh Trivedi from AITC has cost the party dearly from the perspective of national coordination. Neither Derek O’Brien nor Mahua Maitra matches the suave Trivedi, who had developed good relations with all leaders across parties. Yashwant Sinha comes in timely and handy to whet the appetite of a long outstanding Bengali Prime Minister dream.

Therefore, it was not surprising that Sinha and Kishor started lobbying with the Maratha strongman and the leader of the NCP Sharad Pawar, coaxing him to convene a meeting of the opposition leaders at his residence. It was designed as a non-BJP and non-Congress assembly of parties.  The new outfit, Rashtra Mancha, met at Pawar’s place today to discuss the vaccine-related problems, ever-increasing fuel prices and unemployment in the country. If these were the official agenda, the undeclared, unofficial, and the only plan was to oust Modi and BJP in 2024.

If the meeting was attended by a few party representatives from the AITC, NCP, RJD, AAP, SP and the National Conference, it was conspicuous by the Congress party’s absence. Pawar had selectively invited Kapil Sibal, Vivek Tankha and Manish Tiwari of the Congress, who did not attend.

A mere coalition of parties ideologically separated cannot ally on a simple issue to oust Modi alone. Yashwant Sinha, a former bureaucrat and a union minister and Kishor a perfect goalie, could have done a lot better preparing an MCP, minimum common program, besides removing the Modi programme.

I guess the Rashtra Mancha could be a non-starter, despite buoyed by the Mamata’s win in Bengal. The Gandhi Congress will never permit anyone near the PM chair, which they think is destined by Gods to their one and only Rahul. Though weak, the Congress garnered 19.5% of the votes against BJP’s 37.4%, but the Congress had also increased their tally of 10,69,35,942 (2014) by 1,25,58,010 votes in 2019. They are still a bigger factor with their alliances in many states and thus cannot be dismissed so easily.

The story could be different if Sonia and Rahul decide to step aside to save their party from the present comatose state. Despite all the good intentions of Sinha and Kishor, Mamata could face the real challenge from within the Mancha itself, Pawar being the first threat to her PM ambitions. The wily Mulayam backstabbing Mamata during the presidential elections forsaking Pranab Mukherjee under the pressure of the UPA chief, Sonia Gandhi and somersaulting to vote in favour of the NDA proposed UAPA bill are legendary and history.

If invited to a dinner, one can overeat, provided a bottle of digestive is ready in hand.

Sampath Kumar

Intrépide Voix

In Pic: PM Modi and Mulayam Singh Yadav