Congress Focuses On Rahul Gandhi's Yatra Even As Opposition Unity Suffers
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By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2024-01-25 03:37:03
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The India Commentary view
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The Congress is under fire from most of its alliance partners in the I.N.D.I.A bloc. Mamata Banerjee has decided to go alone in Bengal. In Punjab, Bhagwant Mann has said AAP will have no truck with the Congress. In Bihar, the JD(U) is getting impatient as seat-sharing talks are not happening. In Maharashtra, despite the MVA alliance, Shiv Sena (UBT) is in no mood to accommodate the GoP. But what is the Congress doing? Instead of holding serious negotiations to make the I.N.D.I.A bloc stronger - with its chief Mallikarjun Kharge the chairperson of the opposition alliance - the entire focus, the limited resources (by the party's own admission) and the energy has been diverted towards the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra which, as Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly said, is an exercise to listen to the people.
But with Lok Sabha elections just a few months away, the time for listening is over. Now is the time for action and the Congress is guilty of ignoring the I.N.D.I.A alliance. Mamata Banerjee was rightly angry that the Congress did not have the courtesy to inform her about the Yatra's entry into Bengal on January 25. Other I.N.D.I.A alliance partners have questioned the necessity of taking out the solo yatra when the alliance is in place. They say that it could have been planned better with the involvement of all alliance partners to get the maximum mileage. But that exactly is the problem. The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra (as was the earlier Bharat Jodo Yatra), apart from its other aims, is mainly an exercise to bring Rahul Gandhi in the spotlight. Hence, the Congress did not want him to share the limelight with other leaders and went solo. But this is against alliance dharma.
It is debatable what benefit the Congress will get in carrying out the yatra at the expense of antagonizing alliance partners. It will definitely not help it in fighting the 2024 elections in a better way. That will defeat the very purpose of the exercise.
