oppn parties AAP-TMC Tiff Not Good For Opposition Unity

News Snippets

  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
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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.