Rajya Sabha Win: Is Congress losing the centre stage in "United" Opposition?

National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-led central government candidate, Harivansh, defeated his opponent Congress' BK Hariprasad, who got the support of 105 members, by 20 votes in the upper house battle on Thursday.

The battle assumed significance and caught media's glare greatly as this election too was a test of the disparate Opposition groups trying to collage a rainbow platform to oust the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the NDA.

In Rajya Sabha, the battle was seemingly easier for the collective Opposition to defeat the saffron-backed candidate since BJP and their allies stiching together the NDA coalition, lack majority in the uppeer house, unlike in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament.

Harivansh Narayan Singh (Image: Wikimedia commons)

In a dramatic turnaround, several parties like the YSR Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) abstained from voting, paving the way for the government's candidate win in the election.

Making a U-turn from its earlier anti-government stance, the YSR Congress, just before the upper house election, said it will not support Hariprasad as he belongs to the Congress.

Now the question arises whether the time has come when the Congress needs to sacrifice its "big brother" role for the sake of the Opposition Unity.

In the Opposition spectrum, where the regional parties are dominant in the present time in terms of seat-sharing, several key non-Congress, non-BJP leaders are trying to send a message to the country's oldest political outfit.

"If Rahul Gandhi can hug Narendra Modi, why cannot he ask Arvind Kejriwal for support to his party's candidate,"  AAP leader Sanjay Singh was quoted saying by a news channel on the Rajya Sabaha deputy speaker election and why they did not support a Congress candidate.

One of the YSR Congress leaders even compared the BJP with a devil and the Congress with deep sea, while preferring to stay out of the voting process in the Rajya Sabha.

But the vibe is quite similar in other regional parties as well.

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief, Mamata Banerjee, has been hobnobbing with key regional players like N Chandrababu Naidu of Telegu Desam Party (TDP), K Chandrasekhar Rao of Telangana Rashtriya Samithi (TRS), Akhilesh Yadav of Samajwadi Party (SP) or Tejashwi Yadav of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) but much lesser with the Congress leaders.

Yes, the recent meeting between Mamata and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi was a great photo opps for the media, but her public statements are too tough to keep aside.

Image: Congress Twitter page

In an interview to a Bengali news channel in April this year, Mamata said: "We want federal front and one to one fight in different states. Congress will have to fall in line. If they join the federal front, they are welcome."

"Congress will have to sacrifice for other parties as well. Congress is not the only national party in the country. Trinamool Congress, Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena, Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party are also national parties but they are also present in provinces."

A similar tone was heard in Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's voice too. Post meeting with Mamata in Kolkata, Rao had said there will be no magic (in the country) if the Congress comes to power by ousting the BJP, while speaking in favour of the non-Congress, non-BJP federal front.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu might have politically divorced the BJP but was careful in mixing with the Congress.

Even prior to the swearing-in ceremony of Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy as the Karnataka Chief Minister this year, Naidu had vowed to work together with other regional parties to build up a federal front in the run up to 2019 General Elections, which the BJP claims to be an easy task for it to accomplish.

Very significantly, JD(S) chief Deve Gowda said there would be no problem for the country to have a woman Prime Minister in the form of Mamata or former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati. Deve Gowda himself was the Prime Minister of the country between 1996-1997.

The similar voice could be heard in the Congress party as well with its chief Rahul Gandhi reportedly saying he has no problem to leave the throne to any regional player.

The Congress, which lost a virtually winning battle in the Upper House on Thursday, probably has a room for learning from the ruling BJP, which lacked numbers in the Rajya Sabha but crossed the rope.

The BJP not only fielded Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) leader, Harivansh, as the government's candidate but also reportedly contacted Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief Naveen Patnaik through Nitish, seeking support for the Rajya Sabha contest.

With only months to go for the next Lok Sabha elections, the question about the possible framing of the united Opposition still persists.

The question lies whether it would be a federal front with the Congress or the Congress-led united Opposition or non-Congress, non-BJP federal front?