oppn parties Dwindling Choices Before The Congress

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  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • 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
Tragedy in Kolkata: Stampede at the Chor Bagan Pujo results in 18 people losing their lives and scores injured /////// The stampede was caused by a sudden downpour which made people in the heavy crowd run for cover
oppn parties
Dwindling Choices Before The Congress

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-12-05 12:21:38

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

Opposition politics in India is undergoing a huge churn with Mamata Banerjee and her party Trinamool Congress (TMC) bidding to overturn the conventional wisdom that by virtue of its age and resources, the Grand Old Party (GoP) of India, the Congress, is the natural choice to lead any opposition alliance against the BJP.  Banerjee is working to forge an all-India alliance comprising of regional parties and her party is increasingly portraying her as the only leader capable of heading such an alliance and taking on the BJP under Narendra Modi.

But the Congress is not facing the heat only from the TMC. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), sensing a huge opportunity in Punjab, has also taken to Congress-bashing with renewed vigour. Elsewhere, in the past, allies DMK in Tamil Nadu and the RJD in Bihar have rued giving more seats to the Congress in state alliances. RJD senior Lalu Prasad even said that there is no use allocating more seats to the Congress only for them to lose those seats. In the upcoming elections in UP, both the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) do not consider Congress to be a useful alliance partner. Since the Congress has been losing elections and vote share with alarming regularity, regional parties think that it punches much below its weight and are no longer afraid of it dividing opposition votes in three-cornered contests.

The situation for the Congress is turning woefully stark in state after state as a rudderless party that has no clue how to revive itself gropes for answers. It is not as if the Gandhi family is not trying. They tried to rope in poll strategist Prashant Kishor to overhaul the party and make it battle ready to take on the BJP. But perhaps what Kishor suggested was not music to the Gandhis. After that, Kishor has turned a bitter critic and is now supporting the TMC with all his might.

Then, the GoP has to cope with internal differences. Although the G23 members have become less vocal now, their demands have not been met and they are still against the way the party is being run. Then there is Navjot Singh Sidhu. After having had his way in Punjab, the loudmouth stirred controversy again when he said that India should resume trade with Pakistan. Before the BJP could answer, the party own Manish Tiwari (a member of the G23) said that Sidhu should not make such comments and India cannot resume trade with Pakistan until it stops anti-India activities.

The Congress perhaps thinks that it will be the beneficiary of the "there is no alternative" (TINA) factor when it comes to the crunch. It thinks that since it directly fights with the BJP in over 200 Lok Sabha seats, once the people decide to vote the BJP out, it will be the natural beneficiary. Perhaps it also thinks, rightly or wrongly, that given its experience and resources, all other opposition parties must respect its position and accept its leadership. But in doing so, it forgets that under Rahul Gandhi, it has lost successive Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019 and numerous state elections. It also forgets that the image of the party and its plummeting vote share do not give it the heft to command respect as before.

Things have changed and are further changing rapidly in Indian politics. In 2014, the Congress won just 44 Lok Sabha seats. The AIADMK won 37 and the TMC 34. The signs are that Congress is no longer the only alternative for the people. The TINA factor might not work. The opposition parties think that since they do well in their states, an alliance without the Congress can be worked out. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut has confimed as much in his weekly column in the party mouthpiece Saamna that Mamata Bannerjee is working for an opposition alliance without the Congress. If that happens, the Congress might be left by the wayside and its almost 20 percent national vote share will not amount to much if no regional party is willing to ally with it. Then, instead of direct fights with the BJP in 200 seats, the Congress will be left with only Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Chhattishgarh and Madhya Pradesh (states where there are no important regional parties) and just 120 such seats. That would not be enough for it to seriously challenge the BJP. 

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