Opposition parties likely to meet soon to evolve strategy to fight Centre

With friction between some States and the Centre on the rise, Opposition parties are likely to have a joint assembly soon to chalk out a strategy. The final such assembly was in May 2020, when 22 parties met just about, 50 days into the lockdown.

Talks are on and to date no date has been picked. In the previous couple of days, three Chief Ministers — Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan, Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren and Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik, have demanded rationalisation of the vaccine coverage, demanding centralisation of the procurement and universally free vaccines.

The Supreme Court’s observations on Wednesday, calling the Centre’s paid COVID-19 vaccination coverage for the 18-44 age group “arbitrary” and “irrational”, has added ammunition to the Opposition efforts to nook the Union authorities.

On a separate entrance, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is engaged in a head-on confrontation with the Centre over its determination to connect former State Chief Secretary Alapan Bandhopadhyay. In a four- web page letter to the Prime Minister, she wrote: “I sincerely hope that you do not want to damage the federal amity”. Her workplace made it some extent to ship a duplicate of the letter to all of the Opposition leaders.

The Congress Chief Ministers of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel respectively, are protesting in opposition to the non- inclusion of the Congress dominated States within the eight-member Group of Ministers (GoM) to focus on the GST waiver on supplies to fight the pandemic.

A senior Opposition chief mentioned, “There are enough issues that need a joint deliberation and action. Senior leaders from all sides are in constant touch. For now, we are waiting for the report of the GoM on GST. We will take a call on when to meet once the report is submitted”.

Stand of 4 CMs

The looming query, nonetheless, is will Mr. Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal, TRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, YSR Congress chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy, AAP convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal be part of such an effort.

Sources mentioned some efforts have been made to attain out to them however to date there had been no clear response from them.

Reacting to Mr. Patnaik’s letter to fellow Chief Ministers, Senior Congress chief Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “It’s all very well for Odisha CM to write to all CMs,but why can’t he write to PM & persuade him? After all BJD has always supported BJP in Parliament for past 7 years. Several like-minded parties have already written to PM earlier asking for procurement of vaccines by Union Govt.”

CPI basic secretary D. Raja mentioned it was a essential hour and the Opposition ought to put up a united entrance. “The BJP is trying to divert attention from mismanagement of the pandemic by attacking the States. We need to unitedly fight this government.”