It seems incongruous for the Congress to seek opposition unity at the national level and shun it at the local level (Goa). An attempt by the party to bring all political parties in the opposition on one platform to take a strong stand against demonetization has come unstuck with most likely to stay away from Tuesday’s joint press conference. Only Mamata Banerjee of the TMC and the DMK are likely to attend with the rest abstaining on one pretext or the other. The opposition is miffed with the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the last day of the winter session. Gandhi’s stance on demonetisation has brought him back in the limelight, but is still not yet on a scale where he can command or lead the opposition. One leader of repute in the opposition is Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and he has backed Modi on demonetization. With Kumar out of the way it fell on the Congress to lead and Gandhi provided that leadership on the specific issue of demonetization. However, opposition unity is a complicated issue with political parties also keeping an eye on the next Lok Sabha poll. However, regional parties must also realise that without the Congress the chance of overthrowing the BJP in 2019 is a piped dream.
