oppn parties AAP-TMC Tiff Not Good For Opposition Unity

News Snippets

  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
oppn parties
AAP-TMC Tiff Not Good For Opposition Unity

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-02-13 14:23:32

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

There was a time when Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal were on the same page and displayed great bonhomie. Kejriwal attended the mega opposition rally Banerjee held in Kolkata to bring the opposition together. When Banerjee visited Delhi in July 2021 as part of her outreach to opposition leaders, she met Kejriwal after meeting Sonia Gandhi. But that phase seems to have passed and rising national ambitions have meant that the two parties, if not their supreme leaders, are at loggerheads in some states, especially in Goa where both parties are trying to finish off the Congress and turn the anti-incumbency against the BJP to their advantage. This situation is bound to get worse as both the TMC and the AAP will scale up their national ambitions, one state at a time.

In Goa, both parties filed claims against each other after a television channel telecast a video that alleged that some candidates have been paid to switch sides if they won the elections. Those accused included one TMC and three Congress candidates. Valmiki Naik, the AAP candidate from Panaji said his party filed a complaint with the chief electoral officer of the state regarding the video while Churchill Alemao, TMC candidate for Belaulim who is one of the persons accused of taking the bribe as per the video, lodged a complaint with the chief electoral officer demanding that the clip be removed from all platforms, and also filed an FIR against AAP and the TV channel.

Both Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal cannot stand the Congress. While Mamata was initially not averse to tying up with the party but now she thinks that Congress has not done and will not be able to do enough to stop the BJP. She has veered around to the view that a confederation of regional parties can displace the BJP and run the government at the Centre. But if strong regional parties fight among themselves, even that possibility will be negated. AAP is expected to perform well in Punjab (with some opinion polls even saying that it will form the government there) and Uttarakhand. It has also started to make inroads in Gujarat. Hence, any alliance of regional opposition parties will have the TMC and AAP as important pillars. That will not be possible if they fight with each other.