Arvind Kejriwal virtually hit the nail on its head when he demanded that the Opposition parties should not delay discussions on seat-sharing any further. “It may be too late,” he is believed to have said during the internal discussions held during a two-day congregation of 26 Opposition parties in Bengaluru that concluded on Tuesday.

As pertinent as the suggestion was, it reflected only part of the problem that the Opposition’s new grouping that has named itself the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).

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What began with reports of disagreements over the name of the alliance now appears to be swiftly evolving into a problem reflective of the root issue that none of the Opposition leaders are ready to address at this point in time. Who will be Prime Minister if the Opposition alliance comes to power at the Centre in the Lok Sabha elections in 2024?

The leadership question is the elephant in the room that the Opposition, particularly the Congress, refuses to adequately acknowledge. While the Congress has shown pragmatism in accepting that it is willing to make compromises and take a step back in the interest of unity. The Congress has long nurtured the idea of having Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister. However, the sword of disqualification hanging over his head may have solicited a nuanced approach.

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So, it appeared rather magnanimous when Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge announced that the Congress was not seeking the PM post nor leadership of the Opposition bloc. However, he stopped short of giving up the claim entirely.

That, however, did not prove enough for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has positioned himself as the architect of the idea behind a united Opposition Reports have it that Nitish first objected to the proposal to name the Opposition alliance “INDIA”. His reservations are believed to have stemmed from the fact that the acronym for the alliance had the letters NDA in it.

It later emerged that Nitish and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav were miffed about Congress and the Trinamool Congress hogging the limelight, replacing the Bihar Chief Minister from the spotlight. The duo is believed to have left the meeting early and also refused to be part of the joint press briefing.

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The contradiction here is that Lalu’s Rashtriya Janata Dal has its eyes on the Chief Minister’s chair that Nitish currently occupies. Deputy CM and Lalu’s son Tejashwi Yadav, virtually seen as the CM-in-waiting, can only be elevated if Nitish moves to a bigger role at the Centre. Nitish himself has declared well in advance that the RJD-JDU-Congress alliance in Bihar will contest the Assembly elections in the state under Tejashwi’s leadership.

INDIA’s contradictions do not end there. Mamata Banerjee, fresh from a stellar performance of her party in the recently-concluded rural elections, has now started to assert her presence on the Opposition stage. While she repeatedly favoured Rahul as her candidate of choice to lead the Opposition alliance in Bengaluru on Tuesday, her party has already demanded that their leader be declared as the PM candidate of the bloc.

Trinamool MP from Birbhum Shatabdi Roy proposed Mamata’s name for PM after Kharge declared that the Congress was not pressing for the post to go to its own party leader. “We would like Mamata Banerjee to be the PM,” she told reporters in Birbhum when asked to react to the Congress president’s declaration in Bengaluru.

The remark triggered a response from the CPI(M) which is one of the 26 parties which are part of the Opposition alliance. Senior party leader Brinda Karat accused Mamata of “dictatorship” during the West Bengal Panchayat elections and said that any decision on alliance with the Trinamool will be based on discussions with party leaders.

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“In the opposition meeting, we held a discussion to save the Constitution. TMC’s dictatorship was seen in Bengal during the Panchayat elections. To save the constitution and democracy in West Bengal, the (alliance) will be decided after consulting the party leaders of the state. I want to say one thing that you cannot save democracy by attacking it,” Karat said.

As lethal as the grouping may appear to be, the happenings in the past 24 hours alone point to the several contradictions the Opposition alliance needs to surmount if it wants to put up as lethal a challenge to the BJP’s election machinery. One may brush aside these remarks and disappointments as birth pangs for the alliance, for now. In the long run, though, each of these issues (leadership and seat-sharing) could prove hazardous to the coalition if they are not promptly addressed.