Can Shimla Meeting Cool Tempers in Oppn Bloc? Congress Faces Tough Test as AAP, TMC Look to Expand Footprint

A poster seen in West Bengal ahead of the panchayat elections — featuring both Congress and BJP symbols — and the Trinamool Congress making an issue out of it has cast a shadow on the Patna bonhomie with TMC accusing the Grand Old Party of cosying up to the BJP.

The incident is similar to a comment by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar ahead of the Patna meet where she said the Congress had struck a deal with the BJP to ensure the ordinance was not passed in Rajya Sabha in the upcoming Parliament session. Then, Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the Patna meeting was like a wedding party which his party had to attend.

This is ironically in contrast to the significant assurance given at the meeting in Patna. Sources say some opposition parties, particularly the Congress, had raised the point that many parties were fighting elections which was helping the BJP and cutting anti-BJP votes.

The Congress has a reason to be upset about this as in Gujarat and Goa, AAP also jumped into the fray and this backfired on the Grand Old Party.

Sources say at the meeting, AAP assured that it would put its expansion plans on hold till 2024. But is this really possible?

In the end, both AAP and TMC also have to cater to their cadre who would certainly want to see their party escalate its footprint. The upcoming state polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh are now a litmus test. Will the AAP stay away? Doesn’t seem like it for now.

Just ahead of the Patna meet, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had attacked both chief minister Ashok Gehlot and the Congress in Rajasthan over ordinance and corruption issues.

For now, it may be unlikely that the AAP or even the TMC would remain silent on their expansion plans for long, which will have an impact on unity plans. It seems that even the next venue in Shimla will not calm the heat seen in Patna between AAP and Congress.