Here is why Opposition must unite in Parliament

New Delhi, June 18: The first session of the 17th Lok Sabha began on Monday. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has 353 members and the saffron party has a majority on its own with 303 members in the 545-member Lok Sabha. The Congress with 52 seats is the second largest party in the House.

Political analysts say that considering the current composition of the Lok Sabha, there is a dire need of a united Opposition in the Parliament.

Meanwhile, sources say that efforts in this regard have begun.

“Senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma have urged United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi to unite the Opposition in the Parliament. They have appealed Sonia Gandhi to convene a meeting of Opposition leaders as soon as possible because if the Opposition is not united then it would to be very difficult to corner Narendra Modi government,” a party insider tells OneIndia.

According to a political analyst, the Opposition doesn’t have another option than coming together in the Parliament.

“Before the elections, Sonia Gandhi was successful in bringing 22 Opposition parties together. As a leader of the second largest party in the Lok Sabha, she must unite the Opposition in the Parliament. The fact is that both the Congress and the other Opposition parties need the support of each other to corner Narendra Modi government,” says the analyst.

According to him, the linguistic skills of the current Opposition Members of Parliament also demand that they must join hands.

“Neither Congress nor other Opposition parties have leaders who can raise issues in the Lok Sabha with equal ease in Hindi and English. For example, the Congress lacks the leaders who can highlight the issues of states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in Hindi. For that, it would be needing the support of Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal, ” says the analyst.

Sonia Gandhi is the lone Congress MP from Uttar Pradesh.

He is of the opinion that though the Congress ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has won 23 members in the Lok Sabha, it’s unlikely to play any constructive role in national politics because of its Tamil Nadu-centric politics, therefore, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) can become an asset of the Opposition unity.

“Since the Bharatiya Janata Party has won 18 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, it can prove as a boon for the Opposition unity in the Parliament. The tussle between the BJP and TMC is at its acme therefore the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee would be needing the support of the Congress and United Opposition at the national level. Had this not happened, it would have become very difficult to rope in unpredictable Mamata Banerjee, ” says the analyst.

It’s notable that the TMC had won 34 seats in 2014, which has been reduced to 22 in 2019. The BJP is eyeing to dethrone TMC government from West Bengal where Assembly elections are due in 2021.

The BJP alleges that the TMC goons have killed many of its workers.

The analyst also says that the Opposition also must unite to force the government to pass the Bills through the due legislative process.

It has been a common complaint of the Congress and other Opposition parties that Modi government used its brute majority in the 16th Lok Sabha to pass important Bills through Ordinance without legislative scrutiny.