Didi, KCR and Stalin look to stitch anti-BJP front

With a few anti-BJP chief ministers showing interest in forming some sort of a group to fight for the rights of the states, a renewed effort has begun to take on the BJP.

While anti-BJP or anti-NDA grouping is being talked for the first time since the collapse of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance that ruled the Centre for 10 years from 2004, it is interesting to look into the possibility of who all — chief ministers and parties — are likely to be part of such a formation.

Three CMs — West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Tamil Nadu’s M K Stalin (DMK) and Telangana’s K Chandrashekar Rao (Telangana Rashtra Samiti) — are leading this effort to form a possible front. KCR will be meeting his Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena shortly to discuss the issue.

Reports have it that parties like the Rashtriya Janata Dal (Tejashwi Yadav), National Conference (Farooq Abdulla), Janata Dal(S) (H D Deve Gowda) will be called for the meeting that will be held in Delhi.

So, the CMs attending the meeting would be in focus since it is they who are taking interest in hosting this new Opposition entity.

The anti-BJP CMs can be divided into the following categories: 1) CMs who take decision on their own but have cordial relations with one another; 2) CMs who may need to take coalition parties along before they decide; 3) Those guided by party line; 4) Those who stay neutral, and 5) Anti-BJP but not party to any of the above grouping.

CMs like Mamata, Stalin, KCR, their Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha fall in Category 1, while Category 2 has CMs who need to consult their coalition partners.

This category has Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray — who may have to seek OK from Sharad Pawar, patriarch of the NCP, and even the Congress as they are coalition partners in the government — and Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan, who leads the CPM-led Left Democratic Front.

Party line

Category 3 has CMs who have to toe their party line. Into this group fall CMs from the Congress (Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan and Bhupesh Bhagel of Chhattisgarh; Charanjit Singh Channi heads Punjab which is going for polls).

Category 4 has neutral CMs and they include Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik of the Biju Janata Dal and Andhra Pradesh’s Jagan Mohan Reddy of the YSR Congress. The one CM who does not belong to any of the above and charts his own course is Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party.

While it is certain that Category 1 CMs will attend the meeting, Category 2 and 3 CMs have not disclosed their decision. It is unlikely that Category 4 and 5 will attend.

One politician certain to be part of this grouping is Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, and that would be irrespective of the result of the ongoing Uttar Pradesh elections.

As regards issues, most of them have common issues: actions of the governor, improper GST compensation, issues like the posting of IAS and IPS officers, raids by central agencies; refusal of the Centre to convene meetings of National Integration Council (the last time it met was in 2016) and the National Development Council (last meeting was in 2012), where chief ministers can discuss their issues/problems with the Centre.

Watch the latest DH Videos here: