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

Story Of The Day

A 2,458-Point Rally Is Not Yet A Recovery

November 07, 2026

People Are Talking About

People Are Talking About Junk Food Near Schools

News Snippets

  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
Stock markets on fire due to US results, Sensex gains 2008 points to reach its highest level in 8 months
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. 

Other Stories You Make Like

Editorials

A Bench in Chennai Is Not the Answer to a Bench in Every Capital

A Bench in Chennai Is Not the Answer to a Bench in Every Capital

 Gold At Astana Must Become a System, Not a Story

Gold At Astana Must Become a System, Not a Story

In Depth

Grounds Of Arrest: The Supreme Court's Rule Must Be Followed By The Police On The Ground

Grounds Of Arrest: The Supreme Court's Rule Must Be Followed By The Police On The Ground

Editor's Pick

For the Goonj to Reverberate, Rahul Gandhi Must Take Regional Parties Along

For the Goonj to Reverberate, Rahul Gandhi Must Take Regional Parties Along
© 2014 India Commentary. All rights reserved.