The INDIA bloc, which surprised the political deliberators with their all round performance by overcoming BJP’s slogan of "iss bar 400 par" in the Lok Sabha election 2024, finds themselves in troubled waters when the question of who can lead the alliance as a capable leader came up recently when RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav wanted TMC Supremo Mamata Banerjee to lead the INDIA bloc, with the latter thanking the former for understanding the situation in which the alliance is in.
With Congress bhaving the highest number of seats as a member of the INDIA bloc in the Parliament, it is obvious that Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge should be the leader of the alliance. But in the recently concluded assembly elections in Haryana, J&K, and Maharashtra, the opposition camp, particularly the Congress, performed horribly. As a result, other members of the alliance are of the view that the party is neither respecting nor accomodating the sentiments of their allied partners, which is getting backfired towards them through people's mandate when the party has lost by a difference of few seats/votes at various constituencies in the recent assembly elections.
Since Congress has to take the onus of accepting the defeat, it seems to have ignored the regional sentiments that tarnished their electoral prospects in Maharashtra, where they outperformed NDA in parliamentary elections earlier this year to emerge as the largest party with their best ever performace. After the MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) got reduced to 65 seats out of 288 in the assembly election, Congress in particular was in a troublesome position with their horrible outing along with Shiv Sena (UBT) & NCP (SP). As a result, other political parties of INDIA bloc are of the opinion that if Congress cannot learn from the electoral misfortunes since their falllout in the Haryana elections, then it's better to give other members the opportunity to lead the alliance. If left untreated, this can bring down the level of trust with Congress in the future and also the overall electoral perspective of other MVA parties like Shiv Sena (UBT) & NCP (SP) who are alligned with the grand old party among voters. Elsewhere parties like TMC, SP CPI, JKNC etc will start to project Congress as a party without any future
The debate as to how well the INDIA bloc would remain united became a question mark when SP exited the MVA when they had a conflict of interest with Shiv Sena (UBT) on the issue of the Babri Masjid demolition recently. While political discontent may arise within the state level, it can widen the gaps at the national level when parties are either ignoring the political requirements of their allied partners or when their personal ambitions become more important than their political relationship.
For example, in WB, TMC is a stark rival of Congress, which is in contrast at the national level, owing to which the long-term relationship between Congress & TMC is becoming unpredictable and volatile to some extent, which got exposed when Kalyan Banerjee, TMC MP, came down heavily on Congress for stalling the Parliament every time with the 'same Adami issue' and not allowing their allied partners to voice the grievances of their constituencies.
From Congress going solo in Haryana without AAP to ignoring the demands of the regional INDIA bloc players, the opposition stability has a bleak future. The change of guard to Mamata Banerjee has been growing with each passing day when top-profile members like Sharad Pawar are backing Mamata as a new face. Although it's too early to predict any major reforms, the Congress Party needs to accommodate and accept the demands of their partners in order to maintain a cordial and a healthy relationship between them instead of being egotistic and overconfident so that they can successfully counter the Hindutva politics and the narrative of religious polarization of the BJP in the upcoming elections. A new leader of the INDIA Bloc can reignite the dying flame but has to be ready to fight elections anywhere as a united force without breaking away from the alliance.
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