The clampdown was gradually lifted to create an atmosphere conducive to initiate talks with local leaders.
On the influence of regional parties being restricted to their respective states, Omar said, “Nobody can ignore that (the importance of Mamata Banerjee) but we must also keep in mind that unfortunately regional leaders are confined to their individual regions now. This is a fact… whether we like it or not. Let’s say, Mamata Banerjee will have less of a role in Maharashtra. Sharad Pawar will have less of a role in West Bengal. Stalin ji will have less of a role in Jammu and Kashmir and my father (former CM Farooq Abdullah) will have less of a role outside Jammu and Kashmir. So, I think we should play to our strengths and we should work together. We should try and arrive at some sort of common consensus on issues and I think that is where Mamata Banerjee can take a lead in terms of evolving a consensus on issues on which we can fight the BJP. Efforts to bring everybody together should be there as we have done this in the past also. We are only two years into this Parliament (after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls). There are still three years to go and we need to sort of evolve our strategy carefully and not appear to be over eager also because we don’t want to play to the advantages of the BJP. When she won, I congratulated her (Mamata Banerjee) but as and when required, I am always there to discuss things with Mamata Didi.”
The National Conference is now part of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a seven-party coalition of mainstream parties, formed to campaign for the restoration of the special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The alliance said on Tuesday that it will attend the all-party meeting on June 24 with Prime Minister Modi.
Asked about his thoughts on the matter, Omar said, “I am not authorised to speak on the June 24 meeting with the Prime Minister because the consultation process of my party is still ongoing. The consultation process will continue till Wednesday, so unless our meetings are over, I am not authorised to speak on that issue.”
Pawar trip
On the issue of whether political strategist Prashant Kishor is going to play an important role in bringing all the opposition leaders under one umbrella before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, after his back-to-back meetings with Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar in Mumbai, Omar said, “I don’t know what role he will play but obviously he seems to have some strategy in mind because again he met Sharad Pawar in Maharashtra. So obviously he has something in mind but I don’t want to speculate because I had no conversation with him. I don’t know what he is planning and what his strategy is.”
Kishor, who worked with Mamata Banerjee ahead of the April-May assembly polls there, told News18 on Tuesday that he did have very important discussions with Pawar and will have more meetings “with politics on the plate and 2024 as target”. He, however, said he doesn’t believe a third or fourth front can challenge the BJP.
Another influential political leader, Mehbooba Mufti, who was the first woman chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, also believes that Mamata Banerjee should play an important role in bringing the opposition parties together.
Mehbooba is the president of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and was detained in August 2019, along with many other regional leaders like Omar, under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, to be released in October 2020.
She formed a coalition government in J&K with the BJP in 2016 but had to resign two years later when the alliance partner severed ties.
In August 2019, Mamata Banerjee slammed the Centre for declaring Jammu and Kashmir a union territory in an “undemocratic way, without discussing the matter with other political parties or by holding a vote”.
On Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah’s detention, she had said, “They are political leaders and not terrorists. They should be released immediately.” The Centre should build confidence among the people, she added.
Filling a vacuum
In a conversation over text messaging with News18, Mehbooba Mufti said, “I think the more options you have the more democracy flourishes. It is very important to have more choices to lead this great country and if Mamata Banerjee is taking the lead in this, kudos to her. I am sure it will be good for the country. We are not like any other country or like China, where one-party rule is the only option. So the country at this time needs a very strong and vibrant opposition and Mamata ji may be able to fill in the vacuum.”
On the meeting with PM Modi on June 24, she said, “Final decision will be taken after the PAGD meet on June 23.”
With the Trinamool Congress’s emphatic victory last month in the hard-fought West Bengal assembly polls, calls for an anti-BJP front in national politics have been growing louder.
Sharad Pawar is all set to hold a meeting with opposition leaders under the banner of ‘Rashtra Manch’ (National Forum), launched in 2018 by rebel BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha (presently with the Trinamool Congress) and Shatrughan Sinha (also on good terms with Mamata Banerjee).
A rerun
In 2019, Mamata had called for a ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (Grand Alliance) before the Lok Sabha polls to oust the BJP government. She invited leaders of all opposition parties to attend a mega rally in Kolkata’s iconic Brigade Parade Ground on January 19, 2019.
More than 20 national leaders, including former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, former union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, and former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Akhilesh Yadav, Chandrababu Naidu and Gegong Apang attended.
However, the political equations changed as the BJP once again formed the government in 2019 at the Centre and regional parties failed to carry forward their show of ‘united strength’ due to differences of opinion, especially between the Congress and the TMC.
A similar unification attempt is emerging with the next parliamentary polls not too far away, and the BJP rivals hope to put up a better fight this time.
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