Hundreds of supporters and some opposition leaders, carrying flowers and items, lined up in Chennai immediately to greet Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on his seventieth birthday. The items included an unorthodox one — a younger camel that lumbered round. A celebration employee walked it to the corridor the place the DMK chief met the get together cadre.
The anticipated opposition present of power, although, is but to materialise. There has been expectation that the galvanization of the opposition following the arrest of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in reference to the alleged liquor rip-off, will result in some concrete steps. Barring the Congress, which took a nuanced place, all opposition events have slammed the arrest.
Only 4 leaders are current on the occasion — Congress’s Mallikarjun Kharge, National Conference patriarch Farooq Abdullah, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Tejashwi Yadav, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
The listing of destructive RSVP to the DMK invite included Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who determined to skip occasion as his birthday falls on the identical day. Nationalist Congress chief Sharad Pawar, a Congress ally in Maharashtra, has cited poor well being.
The listing of opposition leaders lacking was longer, laying naked the chinks within the opposition unity forward of subsequent yr’s normal election.
It included Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has been holding a low profile for the reason that Presidential election. Telangana Chief Minister Ok Chandrasekhar Rao and his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal weren’t invited out of “mutual understanding”.
All three leaders are seen as aspirants for the put up of the Prime Minister, which has proved the most important hurdle in bringing the opposition beneath one umbrella. DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan, nevertheless, mentioned, “Invites had been despatched solely to those that had been out there to hitch immediately”.
In 2019, Mr Stalin had proposed Rahul Gandhi because the Prime Ministerial candidate of the opposition, upsetting a number of leaders.
This time, Farooq Abdullah mentioned, “We ought to resolve on the very best man for PM after the elections. Now we must always all battle collectively”.
“On points like GST, CAA, all these events are already opposing ideologically. Of course, the political alliance will likely be stitched after elections are introduced. But already all are working in tandem,” mentioned DMK spokesperson Manu Sundaram.