Opposition should forge a state-specific anti-BJP front : Kamal Nath
5 Dariya News
New Delhi 06-May-2018
The Congress cannot be isolated by those trying to form a Third Front or Federal Front, says senior Congress leader Kamal Nath, who feels that the opposition should come together with state-specific anti-BJP fronts to unseat the Modi government in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.He dismisses reports that parties like the Trinamool Congress and Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS of Telangana) are not comfortable with the leadership of Congress President Rahul Gandhi and has no problems about Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK of Tamil Nadu) Working President M.K. Stalin talking to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.The nine-time MP also rejects suggestions that the Congress was adopting a soft-Hindutva stance to counter an image that it was pro-Muslim."Congress is an all-India party. It can never be isolated. The question is to have an anti-BJP front. It has to be state-specific. That's the thing. The basic thing is that it will have to be anti-BJP. BJP polled 31 per cent votes in parliament (elections) and they claimed they have a national mandate which is false," Kamal Nath, who has just been appointed the Madhya Pradesh Congress chief, told IANS in an interview.He was asked about efforts by leaders such as Rao, who is also the TRS chief, and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee talking about forging a Federal or a Third Front and whether there was an attempt to isolate the Congress.Such efforts to unite regional parties have gained momentum in the past two months with Rao meeting leaders of several parties including Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) leader H. D. Deve Gowda, DMK leader Stalin and Jarkhand Mukti Morcha leader Hemant Soren.
He has also received support for his proposal from former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi. Rao has also met Banerjee, who is making efforts to bring together opposition parties and has pitched for one-to-one contest with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).During her visit to Delhi in March, Banerjee had met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar besides MPs from the Shiv Sena, TRS, Biju Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and DMK. She also met Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and got the backing of former Union ministers Shatrughan Sinha, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie in her efforts to forge a front against the BJP.Banerjee had met United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and stressed on the Congress to join a united opposition front against the BJP.Nath, a former Union minister, said the proposal of one-to-one contests against BJP-led NDA was being discussed."We are discussing it. Everything is under discussion at the moment because parliament elections are one year away," he said.The 71-year-old leader said discussions among opposition parties were inconclusive and there was no question of any reservations about Congress President Rahul Gandhi leading the proposed anti-BJP front."Everybody is talking to everybody. There are back channels. So there is no question of reservations," he said in answer to a query about any apprehensions in the opposition camp about Gandhi's leaderhip.Asked if the 2019 electoral battle will be a contest between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi, Nath said: "Let us see. It will be an anti-Modi, anti-BJP contest," he said.