- Friday, April 19, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
The curious case of unity of India’s opposition political parties ahead of next year’s general elections came to the fore again on Friday (14) when the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) announced that it may contest the upcoming polls in Karnataka on May 10.
The development came just a day after NCP chief Sharad Pawar met top leaders of the Indian National Congress to cement the opposition’s unity to take on prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is eyeing its third successive term.
According to a report by NDTV, the NCP, which is mainly a party based in Karnataka’s neighbouring state of Maharashtra and lost its status as the national party recently, is planning to contest in 40-45 seats in Karnataka in areas where the state’s main players — the ruling BJP and opposition Congress and Janata Dal Secular are set to lock horns.
While the decision is a blow to the opposition’s unity at the national level, it is believed to be connected to the NCP’s losing its national party tag.
NCP leader and former federal minister Praful Patel said the party has to take steps to regain its national status.
The NCP’s presence in the Karnataka elections is most likely to hurt its ally Congress, which is trying hard to get back to power with the ruling saffron party fighting anti-incumbency and internal issues. It is likely to eat into the grand-old party’s votes and it might not please its ally.
The NCP is expected to partner in the Karnataka polls with the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti in the Karnataka-Maharashtra boundary region, which is home to a considerable Marathi population.
The NCP was in power in alliance with the Congress and undivided Shiv Sena in Maharashtra between October 2019 and June 2022 when a rebellion in the Sena under the leadership of current chief minister Eknath Shinde led to its collapse.
