New Delhi: The nascent steps towards a broad based Opposition coalition against the Narendra Modi government are already fumbling and the reason seems to be nothing else but the Congress’ refusal to play second fiddle to anyone and its purported big brother attitude towards smaller parties like Janata Dal (United) and the Nationalist Congress Party.
The cracks in Opposition ranks were evident during Friday’s GST event in Parliament when many parties decided to chart their own course and attend the programme instead of just following the Congress’ call to boycott the midnight gala.
Earlier, the JD(U) under Nitish Kumar snubbed the Congress when it decided to support the NDA’s presidential candidate despite being the initiator of talks of Opposition unity.
In both instances many leaders told this newspaper that it was the Congress’ insistence on playing the big brother which was responsible for the rift.
“During the presidential polls, we had all agreed on the name of the Gopal Krishna Gandhi as the Opposition candidate, but the Congress insisted on delaying the announcement of the name. Actually it always wanted to have its own candidate,” JD(U) national secretary K.C. Tyagi said.
