New Delhi: The Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) Monday joined the growing chorus in the Opposition ranks to hand over the leadership of the INDIA bloc to West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, signalling that the non-Congress parties are casting their nets wider to fundamentally reshape the alliance by narrowing the role of the poll-battered Congress.
YSRCP Rajya Sabha MP Vijayasai Reddy—considered a close confidante of party chief and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy—issued a statement saying Banerjee was the “ideal candidate” to lead the INDIA bloc, a political front formed in June 2023 to take on the BJP in the 2024 general elections unitedly.
“Hon’ble West Bengal Chief Minister Didi Mamta Ji is an ideal candidate to lead the INDIA alliance as she has the required political and electoral experience to head an alliance. Didi is also the CM of a large state with 42 Lok Sabha seats and has proven herself time and again,” Vijayasai Reddy posted on X, tagging Banerjee.
Many in political circles saw it as Jagan’s way of conveying that he is ready to embrace the INDIA bloc provided Congress takes a step back, making way for a face with broader acceptability. Until the BJP chose to go with the Telugu Desam Party shortly before the last Andhra assembly polls, Jagan was working closely with the ruling party at the Centre, enjoying a good rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
After getting dislodged from power by the TDP in the assembly polls held alongside the general elections, the YSRCP had shown no interest in joining forces with the Opposition till now. Earlier, the YSRCP stayed out of the NDA umbrella as well, but by bailing out the BJP to get key legislations passed in the 17th Lok Sabha, the party was, for all practical purposes, an ally of the Centre.
Ever since Banerjee, last week, set off the churn by evincing interest in leading the INDIA bloc, several non-Congress parties have closed ranks behind her. The Samajwadi Party, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasahaeb Thackeray) leaders were quick to endorse her pitch.
Now, the YSRCP lending its weight to the demand could leave the Congress with fewer options to wriggle out of the situation as its losses in the Maharashtra and Haryana assembly polls and dismal performance in Jammu and Kashmir have left it quite dispirited.
Jagan, the son of late Congress stalwart and Andhra Pradesh CM Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, had a fallout with the Gandhi family after his father’s death, prompting him to float the YSRCP which governed Andhra Pradesh from 2019 to 2024. In January this year, the Congress appointed Y.S. Sharmila, Jagan’s sister, the chief of the INC Andhra Pradesh unit. In this backdrop, his feeler assumes more political significance.
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‘Unhappy with Congress behaving like a big dada’
The SP, which previously suggested an inclination to the idea of a non-Congress face leading the INDIA bloc, made it clear Monday that Banerjee could be that choice.
Speaking to ThePrint, SP vice-president Kiranmoy Nanda said the SP was not willing to put up with the “big brotherly” attitude of the Congress.
“In Jharkhand—which is a tribal belt—Hemant Soren won. Now, people are thinking what the INDIA bloc would do. For this reason, our suggestion is the INDIA bloc leader be changed,” Nanda said.
“Mamata Banerjee is a very strong leader. She has become the chief minister three times, defeating the BJP. In the bypolls also, the TMC won all seats, including the one the BJP had. Even the people want Mamata Banerjee to lead the INDIA bloc,” he added.
Nanda added that the SP was “unhappy with the Congress, which is behaving like a big dada in politics”. Contesting 328 seats, the lowest ever in its history as it gave up many seats to its INDIA bloc allies, the Congress won 99 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The party’s performance then perked it up considerably, as its tally was only 52 in 2019 and 44 in 2014, but the recent string of losses has plunged it into a crisis again.
So far, the SP, like the TMC, has maintained a distance from Congress-led protests in Parliament against the alleged Bharatiya Janata Party-Adani nexus. The SP is also sulking over Congress “silence” after SP leaders lost their front-row seats in the Lok Sabha.
Till the monsoon session of the Parliament, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and the party’s Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad used to occupy two front-row seats beside Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi. Congress has maintained that the government did not listen to its seat demands.
The SP’s Maharashtra unit was also recently involved in a spat with the Shiv Sena (UBT) over a social media post by Uddhav Thackeray’s close aide, Milind Narvekar, who appeared to defend the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid, adding to the INDIA bloc’s woes.
Similarly, the TMC has maintained a distance from the Congress-led protests against Adani, pointing out the need to take a multipronged approach and raise a broader set of issues with resonance among the people.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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