‘Main Bhi PM’: Projecting CMs as Prime Ministerial Face is Oppn Strategy to Take on Modi in 2024

The hurdle for every Opposition front has been who will be the PM face?

While they have been averting this question even in the last Lok Sabha polls, the constituents of this front have realised that in a personality-driven Lok Sabha election, with Narendra Modi’s towering image, not throwing up a PM face just doesn’t work.

So a formula has been quietly been worked upon. And it is that ‘Every CM can be PM’.

Sounds confusing? No, it’s a well thought-out strategy.

THE LOGIC

A senior leader told News18, “See, it is simple arithmetic. We want the Opposition parties to do well in their respective states. If a sitting CM dangles the possibility of him or her becoming the PM, it is easy to get votes. If our support increases, it’s easier for us to lay claim to being an alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).”

This is the calculation of the opposition parties. For example, if MK Stalin or Arvind Kejriwal convey to their voters that they could be the PM, they could manage a huge sweep in polls.

“Now knowing the BJP has done well in Bengal, if we say, for example, how about a woman as PM, it may help us get the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) votes,” he said.

The plan is also that instead of focusing on the national picture too much, the stress should be on not ignoring the home state. For example, the TMC made a mistake of venturing into Goa and ended up with an egg on the face.

The idea is while the regional parties will and can engage at national level and branch out, it can’t be at the cost of their core areas ? Delhi and Punjab for Kejriwal, Bengal for Mamata Banerjee, Telangana for KCR and Tamil Nadu for Stalin. This also explains the recent stance of these parties.

A case in point how the TMC promptly distanced itself from Mahua Moitra’s Kali comments, despite knowing that she was right in Bengal’s context. “If we are looking beyond Bengal, we can’t justify and support her comments,” said the leader.

ALL EYES ON CONGRESS

Irrespective of their electoral performance, the Opposition parties have pinned their hopes on the Congress to perform. According to them, there are at least four states where the BJP is in a straight fight against the Congress ? Rajasthan, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

“If the Congress does well in these states, unlike the last Lok Sabha polls, we have some hope.”

But the Congress projecting a candidate, which would inevitably mean Rahul Gandhi as the PM face, is bound to boomerang. “Any battle which is PM Modi versus Rahul Gandhi only helps the BJP and harms the Congress even more.”

So when Kejriwal said that he wanted all parties to come together to overthrow the BJP and that he is being projected as the PM face by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), it seems scripted.

Of late, things have not been smooth between the AAP and TMC. When the AAP protested in parts of Bengal, the message was clear that things are not good between the two. A TMC leader said, “We know the AAP has its ambitions, but if it is at our cost, how do we reconcile?”

For the sake of Opposition’s good performance in 2024, the TMC or any other party cannot afford to be oblivious to the fact that in Punjab and Delhi, the AAP cannot be ignored.

KCR’s recent aggression is also part of the narrative the Opposition is trying to build.

With multiple egos and clashes, can taking on the BJP be easy?

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