(Image source from: NDTV.com)

The BJP’s failure to form a government in Karnataka has come as a silver lining for the opposition parties ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Now, perhaps, in a possible show of unity, several prominent Opposition leaders and chief ministers will be sharing the podium at the swearing-in ceremony of Janata Dal (Secular)’s H D Kumaraswamy as Karnataka chief minister in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

The event will also be used as an opportunity by the Opposition to showcase its strength as parties are now setting sight on the equations ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The ceremony will be participated by two main Opposition heavyweights, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo, Mayawati is also set to travel to Bengaluru to attend Kumaraswamy’s oath-taking ceremony. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has also confirmed his attendance, as did Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Other politicians include West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, CPI(M) chief Sitaram Yechury, former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, NC’s Farooq Abdullah, DMK chief M. Stalin, and actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan.

The swearing-in of Kumaraswamy as the chief minister of Karnataka, seen as the convergence of the Opposition to take on the BJP in 2019, might as well be the emergence of an alternate front that can give BJP a fight.

The representatives of the political parties, which will be present at the podium, together form more than 40% of the vote share which these parties got during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in which BJP came first with 31% of the vote share. The BJP’s vote share then had translated into 285 seats for them. Currently BJP has 274 Lok Sabha seats.

The Opposition leaders present at the event also represent more than 157 seats together. This includes heads of parties like Congress which has 48 seats, All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) with 34 seats, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) with 16 seats, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) with 11 seats, Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM) with nine seats, and other regional party heads which together take the tally to 157.

By Lokesh