oppn parties Congress & BSP: It Would Have Made No Difference

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  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
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  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
oppn parties
Congress & BSP: It Would Have Made No Difference

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-04-10 15:08:42

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

After a crushing and demoralizing defeat in the UP elections when the Congress party could win just 2 seats, got only 2.5% votes and 97 percent of its 403 candidates lost their security deposits, it is funny that Rahul Gandhi is taking potshots at the Bahujan Samaj party (BSP) and Mayawati. Rahul claimed that the Congress had offered to make Mayawati the chief ministerial face if she had contested the elections in alliance with the Congress, but she never replied and did not meets Congress leaders.

Does Mr Gandhi realize the reason for the snub? The Congress is a spent force in UP. It was already down in the dumps and after the 2022 elections, it has been totally marginalized. Mayawati is a shrewd politician. She knew that the Congress had lost the Muslim voters long time back to the SP and the BSP. Its Dalit voters had also shifted camp ages back to the two parties as per their caste loyalties, before the BJP cut in through its social engineering from 2014 onwards and made it a three-way drain on the Congress. Except for some old-timers, no one votes for the Congress in UP. Hence, Mayawati knew there was no point in allying with the party and snubbed its overtures.

As Mayawati said later, the Congress had never been well disposed towards her party and had always tried to defame the party. She said even now the Congress was saying that she had refused an alliance and was low key during the UP elections as she was afraid of the numerous cases filed by the Centre against her through agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, the CBI and others. But Mayawati said that she had won most of these cases in the Supreme Court. She advised the Congress to set its house in order instead of raising such issues.

The Congress should follow Mayawati's advice. It should set its house in order. The way the last elections played out, it seems that UP will increasingly have bipolar elections where the BJP and the SP will contest against each other by having a rainbow alliance with smaller parties. It will be an uphill task for the Congress, or for that matter even the BSP, to make a meaningful comeback if the SP does not lose steam. But there is hope for the Congress in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. It must get to work otherwise there too the Aam Aadmi Party will elbow it out, like it did in Punjab. It will have to realize that no political strategist or fancy campaign will help it win unless it presents itself as a credible alternative with a strong regional leader. 

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