Every vote counts for the opposition bloc ahead of Türkiye’s May 14 elections. So first, they eyed alliance with underdogs, a party openly aligned with the terrorist group PKK and now they have reached out to one man who opposes the same terrorist group and others. Muharrem Ince, who challenged incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2018 as the candidate of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), is being courted by his former party. Though the CHP is tight-lipped on the talks, it hopes Ince will drop his presidency bid and motivate his supporters to endorse the opposition alliance.

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the presidential candidate of the six-party opposition bloc, met Homeland Party (MP) leader Ince on Wednesday evening. Though names close to both declined to comment on the political content of the meeting, Ince ruled out that he would withdraw his candidacy in the elections.

Supporters of the opposition bloc have repeatedly been calling him to endorse Kılıçdaroğlu. At the same time, social media was awash with messages from accounts linked to the PKK and Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) insulting him for not joining "the front" against Erdoğan. Indeed, Ince shares the same sentiment with Kılıçdaroğlu and others in the opposition whose only motive is ending the victorious two-decade run of Erdoğan. His remarks that Türkiye should "get rid of Erdoğan" angered the president, who hit back at Ince on Wednesday.

"What has Erdoğan done to you? Shame on you," Erdoğan said in a live interview. "You are standing next to those standing next to terrorist groups," he said, referring to Ince’s contact with the CHP. "You have been with them for years; they nominated you for president, but then, they turned their back on you. Now they are back at your door, and you are weighing your options," he told Ince.

Ince started his political career in the CHP and was elected as the party’s lawmaker from the Yalova constituency during the 2002 elections. He twice challenged the leadership of Kılıçdaroğlu, in 2014 and 2018, but failed to garner enough votes to defeat him in the CHP’s intra-party polls. Yet, Kılıçdaroğlu, whose party repeatedly lost all elections against the AK Party in two decades, nominated him as a contender against Erdoğan in the 2018 presidential elections. Erdoğan secured a landslide victory in the polls, while Ince is credited with boosting the CHP’s vote for the first time in decades in such an election to over 30%. After the post-election fallout with the CHP, Ince established his party in 2021.

In a joint news conference following the meeting, Ince told reporters he would not withdraw his candidacy.

For his part, Kılıçdaroğlu said he’s trying to extend the members of the opposition Nation Alliance. He noted that they discussed ongoing issues in the country, including the earthquake region, as he thanked Ince for hosting him.

But Ince was not too fond of the meeting and did not hesitate to express his concerns about the opposition alliance. His farewell to Kılıçdaroğlu made headlines as he said: "Thanks for coming. Welcome and goodbye."

"There should be alliances in politics, but these should be based on principles rather than interests," Ince said, adding that he is strictly against any negotiations on Mustafa Kemal Atatürk – the republic’s founder. He also said his movement opposes any discussions with terrorist groups and will never make any concessions.

Ince was referring to the opposition bloc’s tacit cooperation with the pro-PKK Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which announced that they would not nominate a candidate, implying that they would support Kılıçdaroğlu. The PKK terrorist group also welcomed Kılıçdaroğlu’s candidacy, saying that the HDP’s stance of supporting the Nation Alliance is valuable, essential and meaningful.

Political pundits say at the end of the day, Kılıçdaroğlu and Ince stuck to their stance and will not make any concessions to each other.

Kılıçdaroğlu also reportedly did not make any concrete offer to Ince, and some critics even claim that the meeting aimed to portray Ince as the side who does everything to "divide the opposition front" and contributing to their conspiracy theory that Ince is secretly working for Erdoğan to help reducing vote potential of the opposition bloc. Kılıçdaroğlu had already closed the door to Ince when he allied with five opposition parties. Ince appears to be riding a wave of popularity on social media as an alternative to Kılıçdaroğlu. After all, he is a candidate embracing what critics of the "new" CHP under Kılıçdaroğlu lack: a hardliner from the "old school" of Türkiye’s oldest party, which long relied on strictly secular "Atatürkist" or "Kemalist" ideology. Kılıçdaroğlu’s olive branch to terrorist groups in a bid to diversify CHP voters disturbed CHP’s former supporters who joined firebrand Ince.

Ince’s popularity may rise further as he emerges as a political figure bullied by supporters of the opposition bloc. It is unclear how much sympathy he will be able to reap by playing the victim. But Ince, a former teacher whose sole political ambition was once to be a minister of education according to rumors, will have to defy the odds against Erdoğan and contend with insults from the acclaimed pianist Fazıl Say, who derided his "caveman-level rhetoric." Until then, he may find solace in the results of the surveys that show him winning around 16%-17% of the vote, in his own words.