Another attempt at anti-BJP front? Sonia, Akhilesh among Oppn leaders at MK Stalin’s Delhi office inauguration

Amid talks of a united anti-BJP front, leaders of opposition parties including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah shared the dais at the opening of the DMK’s office in Delhi on Sunday. 

The inauguration of the office by DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin was also attended by leaders from the TMC, TDP, CPI, BJD and SAD. Sonia Gandhi cut the ribbon for one of the sections of the office. 

While TMC was represented by Mahua Moitra and TDP by Rammohan Naidu and K Ravindra Kumar, D Raja from CPI, Amar Patnaik from BJD and Harsimrat Badal from SAD also attended the event.

Several ministers in the Tamil Nadu government, MPs of the DMK from both Houses and Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi Stalin were also present.  

Billing it as an event that would write the history of southern India from Delhi, Stalin had said it is a “compelling symbol” of the vital space in national politics for his party, its policies and the vehicle to implement it, the ‘Dravidian model’.

In an open letter to DMK workers, Stalin had hailed the new office christened ‘Anna-Kalaignar Arivalayam’ as a Dravidian fort and had invited leaders from almost all parties, including top leaders of the BJP and other non-UPA parties.

The opposition leaders coming together on the stage with Sonia Gandhi being at the forefront comes after the Congress suffering yet another round of poll debacle in the recently concluded Assembly polls in five states, which has raised questions on the role of Grand Old Party as the main opposition party in the country. 

After the party’s disappointing performance in the polls and losing Punjab at the hands of the Aam Aadmi Party, Sonia Gandhi has taken the driver’s seat to exercise damage control ahead of the elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh later this year. 

So far, attempts by several opposition leaders to forge an anti-BJP front have gone in vain. Experts believe that a fractured opposition and the personal ambitions of opposition leaders are the main reasons behind the BJP’s unperturbed victory run.  

On March 27, Banerjee wrote to all non-BJP chief ministers and opposition parties, including the Congress from which, her party had organised defections in two states recently, calling on all “progressive forces” to come together and put up a united fight against the “oppressive BJP regime”.

The West Bengal chief minister has called for a meeting to discuss strategies to take on the saffron party and also commit to the cause of a unified and principled opposition that will make way for the “government that the country deserves”.

Earlier this year, Banerjee had met NCP chief Sharad Pawar and called for a united anti-BJP front sans Congress. However, both the NCP and Shiv Sena made it clear that an opposition front without the Congress was not possible.