‘Coalition of opposition parties possible to take on BJP’

Maharashtra experiment showed that parties with diverse ideologies can come together, say speakers at meet

Coalition of opposition parties irrespective of diverse ideologies was possible to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Indian democracy is replete with successful coalition governments, but this would be possible only if they place a convincing alternative to the present regime. This was the consensus among the representatives of three opposition parties at a session on ‘Does India lack an effective Opposition’, organised as a part of the Indian School of Business (ISB) Leadership Summit here. Parliament members Asaduddin Owaisi from AIMIM, Manish Tewari from the Congress, Priyanka Chaturvedi from the Shiv Sena and Sanjaya Baru, former Media Advisor to late Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao projected the danger of diminishing democracy in India but also presented the hope of opposition parties coming together in the near future. Mr. Tewari, former Union Minister, said the powerful presence of the BJP will diminish as it was proved in the recent elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. India has seen successful coalition governments from 1991 to 2004 under different Prime Ministers. Ms. Priyanka Chaturvedi also chipped in giving the example of Maharashtra experiment where three ideologically different parties were successfully running the government with a common minimum programme.