The Congress Party and Trinamool Congress (TMC) have still yet to meet over trying to find enough common ground so that they can together form the official opposition in the state Assembly.
In a house of 60 legislators, the leader of the opposition should be from a party with a strength of at least 10. However, no party qualifies on its own. Up to now, the three parties – the Voice of the People Party (VPP) being the third – have also shown themselves unable or unwilling to come together and form an alliance in order for a formal opposition to be recognised by the Speaker.
While the VPP is unwilling to make cause with old-school parties that it has positioned itself to be diametrically opposed to, the clash of egos within the Congress and TMC could prevent an agreement, which would hand the government a huge boon.
Today, on the first day of the budget session, Dr Mukul Sangma, who was the opposition leader in the previous Assembly, told reporters that the Congress and TMC have still to properly sit down and discuss how to come to an agreement even though it is nearly three weeks since the election results came out.
“We have not sat properly. We will do that and we will find out what is necessary for us to decide on as different political parties sitting in opposition,” Dr Sangma said in a verbose manner. “The issue is not who is the leader of the opposition, the issue is to enable ourselves to fulfill the responsibilities vis a vis the conventions and practices inside and outside the house.”
A further complication, beyond egos, is the fact that both the Congress and TMC both have five MLAs each but Dr Sangma still sounded hopeful of a solution. “We hope to have a sitting and then have a decision that will be arrived at with the wisdom of all concerned,” he said.
