The Modi versus who question continues to haunt opposition

New Delhi: The INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc on Tuesday deferred a call on who will be its challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, insisting that the decision would be taken after the polls if the grouping has the requisite numbers.

At its fourth meeting, the INDIA grouping seemed quite close to naming Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge as its Prime Ministerial candidate but later kept the decision in abeyance.

Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee stunned everyone in the meeting with her suggestion that Kharge should be declared the Opposition’s face for next year’s Lok Sabha polls, due April-May.

She was supported by Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal. However, Kharge declined the offer insisting that the call should be taken after the elections.

According to sources, Kejriwal had done extensive research on the issue and concluded that Kharge, a prominent Dalit face of the Congress, could be an ideal choice to take on Modi.

During his research, he found that Kharge belonged to the same caste as that of the Dalit icon and architect of Indian Constitution, Dr BR Ambedkar. It is said that Ambedkar belonged to the Mahar caste.

The country has not had a Dalit Prime Minister yet. Kharge’s projection would be viewed as going beyond mere symbolism.  The last time a Dalit leader came close to becoming the Prime Minister was in 1977 when Babu Jagjivan Ram's installation was scuttled due to internal conflict within the Janata Party.

Kejriwal then met Banerjee and requested her to take the lead in announcing Kharge’s name. Initially, she refused, and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee expressed strong reservations about naming someone from the Congress as the Opposition’s Prime Ministerial candidate.

A dejected Kejriwal had argued that the only way the Opposition could get back into the game after the stupendous victories of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh would be by naming Kharge as Modi’s challenger. This would also settle the Modi versus who debate and give the voters a credible and experienced choice.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien spoke on behalf of his party but when former Congress president Sonia Gandhi insisted Banerjee to say a few words she stunned everyone, especially Kejriwal, with her Kharge googly. Kejriwal had never thought that she would take Kharge’s name after her nephew had vetoed it.

Kharge’s refusal is understood for he would not have accepted the offer without consulting his party and the Gandhi family.

Congress leaders too privately admit that Kharge and not Rahul Gandhi would give a tough fight to Modi but publicly they endorse the Gandhi scion’s name.

Several Congress leaders did not rule out the possibilities that the issue might come up for discussion in the December 21 meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) called to discuss the poll debacle in the three states and the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

That said, the Opposition should realise that a faceless campaign would give a clear advantage to Modi as the people nowadays are keen to know the faces they have to vote for. The sooner the INDIA bloc names its face, the better it would be for the Opposition to fight Modi and the BJP in 2024.