<b>Newsmaker:</b> Rahul Gandhi

Left or right? Rahul will decide

Visitors to the Central Hall of Parliament were startled one day in the previous session to see two unlikely members of Parliament (MPs) in animated conversation. There was Rahul Gandhi, vice-president of the Congress, sitting next to the youthful Communist Party of India (Marxist) member from Palakkad, M B Rajesh. Curious reporters asked what the two were discussing. "Oh, he wanted to know how the CPI (M) works in Kerala," replied Rajesh with a laugh. The Congress and CPI (M) are bitter adversaries in Kerala. There are more instances of the Congress' willingness to accept the best practices in coordination among opposition parties. Some among the four MPs from the Aam Aadmi Party were seen attending sessions by the Congress on floor coordination.

Is this a precursor to a new kind of opposition politics, that celebrates opposition unity around opposition to communalism? Will Gandhi to lead it?

Realising the Congress was going south, it was the then defence minister A K Antony, the man Gandhi considers his teacher and role model, who first suggested it during the 2014 election campaign: That the Left parties consider joining up with the Congress to defeat Narendra Modi. The invitation was unmistakable. Ironically, it is the Left parties the Congress is fighting in Kerala, Antony's home state. It is one thing to discuss this in private. In the middle of a campaign, when the Congress and the Left parties are slugging it out, to say: "Let's be friends…" Antony's statement got an immediate rebuttal from the CPI(M), which obviously did not want its cadres to be demoralised.

Suggestions were also made that the Congress stop the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in east India and tie up with the two important satraps - Mamata Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik. But, as the Congress is the principal opposition in both states, it will be impossible to even moot the suggestion.

Consider the current setting. Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference has already said Nitish Kumar would make a good prime minister of India. He said it at Kumar's swearing-in, where all the top leaders, including those from the Congress, were present. No one really demurred. The leadership of a united opposition now has another claimant, Kumar.

Banerjee, Patnaik, Mulayam Singh Yadav and even the Left parties might draw a line at joining a government headed by Gandhi or the Congress. Kumar presents no threat. For Gandhi and the Congress, this is a difficult choice to make. On the one hand, the Congress should not, and must not, dilute its strength at the altar of opposition unity. On the other, being exclusivist can only end in isolation and decimation. Being part of a coalition needs sacrifice and the Congress knows this better than anyone else. Will Gandhi yield in making this existential choice? Or will he continue to press on alone, even if it means the decline of the Congress and rise of the BJP?

Although he doesn't have to make the choice immediately, it is something he will have to work on and consider. The moves made by the Congress will tell us where Gandhi wants to take the party.