oppn parties Congress On The Back Foot After Latest Reversals

News Snippets

  • Chess World title match: Ding Liren salvages a sraw in the 7th game which he almost lost
  • Experts speculate whether Ding Liren wants the world title match against D Gukesh to go into tie-break after he let off Gukesh easily in the 5th game
  • Tata Memorial Hospital and AIIMS have severely criticized former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for claiming that his wife fought back cancer with home remedies like haldi, garlic and neem. The hospitals warned the public for not going for such unproven remedies and not delaying treatment as it could prove fatal
  • 3 persons died and scores of policemen wer injured when a survey of a mosque in Sambhal near Bareilly in UP turned violent
  • Bangladesh to review power pacts with Indian companies, including those of the Adani group
  • The Indian envoy in Bangladesh was summoned by the country's government over the breach in the Bangladesh mission in Agartala
  • Bank account to soon have 4 nominees each
  • TMC and SP stayed away from the INDIA bloc protest over the Adani issue in the Lok Sabha
  • Delhi HC stops the police from arresting Nadeem Khan over a viral video which the police claimed promoted 'enmity'. Court says 'India's harmony not so fragile'
  • Trafiksol asked to refund IPO money by Sebi on account of alleged fraud
  • Re goes down to 84.76 against the USD but ends flat after RBI intervenes
  • Sin goods like tobacco, cigarettes and soft drinks likely to face 35% GST in the post-compensation cess era
  • Bank credit growth slows to 11% (20.6% last year) with retail oans also showing a slowdown
  • Stock markets continue their winning streak on Tuesday: Sensex jumps 597 points to 80845 and Nifty gains 181 points to 24457
  • Asian junior hockey: Defending champions India enter the finals by beating Malaysia 3-1, to play Pakistan for the title
  • Chess World title match: Ding Liren salvages a sraw in the 7th game which he almost lost
  • Experts speculate whether Ding Liren wants the world title match against D Gukesh to go into tie-break after he let off Gukesh easily in the 5th game
  • Tata Memorial Hospital and AIIMS have severely criticized former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for claiming that his wife fought back cancer with home remedies like haldi, garlic and neem. The hospitals warned the public for not going for such unproven remedies and not delaying treatment as it could prove fatal
  • 3 persons died and scores of policemen wer injured when a survey of a mosque in Sambhal near Bareilly in UP turned violent
  • Bangladesh to review power pacts with Indian companies, including those of the Adani group
  • The Indian envoy in Bangladesh was summoned by the country's government over the breach in the Bangladesh mission in Agartala
  • Bank account to soon have 4 nominees each
  • TMC and SP stayed away from the INDIA bloc protest over the Adani issue in the Lok Sabha
  • Delhi HC stops the police from arresting Nadeem Khan over a viral video which the police claimed promoted 'enmity'. Court says 'India's harmony not so fragile'
  • Trafiksol asked to refund IPO money by Sebi on account of alleged fraud
Australia thrassh India in the 4th Test, dim their chances of making the WTC finals, Rohit, Virat and Rahul fail once again
oppn parties
Congress On The Back Foot After Latest Reversals

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2023-12-05 06:35:58

About the Author

Sunil Garodia The India Commentary view

The electoral reverses in the Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have put the Congress on the back foot vis-a-vis its wish to be the undisputed leader of the I.N.D.I.A bloc. The way the party spurned efforts of individual parties within the alliance to come to an understanding with it regarding seat sharing in the three states has boomeranged on it and has given a handle to the said other parties to criticize it. Although TMC was not in contention in these three states, it has warned that the zamindari attitude of the Congress will be the undoing of the I.N.D.I.A alliance. Mamata Banerjee said that the results in the three states were not victory for the BJP but loss for the Congress as it refused to come to an understanding with the alliance partners.

The Congress had ignored pleas for seat sharing from various parties, including the Samajvadi Party and AAP in the run up to these elections. It was confident that given the welfare push in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, it would buck anti-incumbency in those states and would beat the BJP in Madhya Pradesh by turning the anti-incumbency against the ruling BJP in its favour. It ignored its dismal record in one-to-one fights with the BJP and the very basis for which the opposition alliance has been stitched together - that of preventing division of opposition votes - and tried to win the elections on its own. It came a cropper.

Given Congress's intransigence, it seems that the I.N.D.I.A alliance is doomed to failure. The state elections were a good starting point to test the waters for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Mutual understanding over seat sharing in these three states, even if on a small scale, would have given the opposition a peek into how they could breach the BJP fortress in 2024. But by having an ugly spat with the Samajvadi Party in Madhya Pradesh and others elsewhere, the party damaged the prospects of seat sharing in 2024.