Twenty three political parties come together in “oust Modi” campaign

Kolkata: Twenty three political parties, including the Congress and major regional parties like SP, BSP and DMK, came together on Saturday at a mega rally under the auspices of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to throw the gauntlet at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for defeating him in the coming general elections but kept the daunting issue of their prime ministerial candidate to be decided after the elections. Banerjee, who organised the well-attended “United India” rally at the historic Brigade Parade Ground called for a ‘collective leadership even as Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav said: “Whoever people decide, will become prime minister”.

Later, the leaders met over tea and interacted with the media when they said demanded scrapping of the process of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and a return to ballot papers. The parties decided to form a four-member Committee consisting of Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Satish Chandra Mishra (BSP), Abhishek Singhvi (Congress) and Arivind Kejriwal (AAP).

Former prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular) president H D Deve Gowda conceded that it was a “herculean task to forget differences and come together” and said “the main task now is how we should move forward”. Some of the leaders, however, did try to give a roadmap for taking on the BJP jointly by emphasising on one-on-one fight against the BJP by putting up the strongest candidate in every seat. “In every seat, there should be only one candidate and the strongest candidate against the BJP. They (the BJP) are the only beneficiaries of any division of votes, be it in Haryana, or Uttar Pradesh, or Bengal or Bihar. So our main aim should be to avoid any division of votes. “Wherever we could prevent any division of votes, say in Gorakhpur or Phulpur (where the BSP and the SP came together to defeat the BJP in Lok Sabha by-polls last year) the BJP lost,” said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Banerjee repeated her known stand that the strongest anti-BJP force in a state should be allowed to decide on the alliance. (IANS)

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