Six months after a commendable performance in the Lok Sabha elections, the ‘India’ alliance of opposition parties finds itself at a crossroads. This alliance of opposition parties performed well in the assembly elections of Jharkhand and Jammu Kashmir, but the defeat in Haryana and Maharashtra has shown the differences between its parties. In Maharashtra, the victory registered by the BJP-led Mahayuti over the Congress-led Mahavikas Agari has created a rift, especially among the opposition parties. Congress’ poor performance has hurt its weighty role within ‘India’; As a result, Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has come out openly. Mamata Banerjee has expressed her displeasure at the way the alliance is functioning and has hinted that if given the opportunity, she may come forward to take charge of the alliance. He has also got the support of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) senior leader Sharad Pawar, who has termed Mamata Banerjee as the country’s ‘prominent leader’.
It is evident that Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, is losing ground as the face of ‘India’. Now there are three Gandhis in the Parliament, of which Priyanka is the new one, but this did not make any difference in the enthusiasm of the Congress colleagues. Although the party president Mallikarjun Kharge is the chairperson of this alliance, it is not hidden from anyone that only the Gandhi family takes important decisions and with this kind of arrangement, neither the Congress nor the ‘India’ alliance is getting stronger, but a dire situation is created for the party. Rather, it is an electoral field and its direct political benefit is to the ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party.
Congress has no choice but to listen to its partners. Overconfidence has cost it dearly in Haryana, where it has not given much space to the other members of ‘India’. Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena is complicating matters by praising those who demolished the Babri Masjid; The Samajwadi Party has given a befitting reply to the Sena’s stance as the Muslim vote bank of the party is quite large in Uttar Pradesh. Mutual respect and cooperation must be prioritized to keep the coalition together; Otherwise, this alliance will crack if not today or tomorrow, which will level the playing field for Bharatiya Janata Party and Narendra Modi.