July 17, 2026

Where Is The INDIA Alliance Headed?

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2023-08-21 15:09:46

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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

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Just days after the tiff between the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress was resolved with the latter agreeing to oppose the Delhi Services Bill (now Act) in Parliament, another, more serious row has broken out between the two parties. AAP has warned that it might not attend the next meeting of the INDIA alliance.

The row started when Alka Lamba, the Congress leader from Delhi, made a statement that the party was gearing up to seriously contest all 7 Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. AAP took umbrage - it asked how is the Congress, being a fellow member of the India alliance, thinking of opposing AAP in Delhi and divide opposition votes when AAP is best placed to give a tough fight to the BJP? Although Deepak Babaria, the Delhi in-charge of the Congress , called Lamba an "{immature spokesperson" and said she was not authorized to talk about such important matters, the damage was done. The party later distanced itself from Lamba's statement.

Arvind Kejriwal visited poll-bound and Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh soon thereafter where he poured vitriol on the Bhupesh Bhagel administration. He was unsparing in his criticism about the state of the government schools in the state. The Congress did not take kindly to the criticism and in a sharp response, Pawan Khera challenged Kejriwal to a debate on Delhi. Kejriwal also visited MP, another Congress-ruled and poll-bound state where he once again presented AAP as a viable alternative to the two national parties. Hence, Kejriwal is now targeting Congress in states where it is in direct contest with the BJP. This means that the two parties are on the warpath despite being in the same opposition alliance. This has prompted the BJP to say that the the two parties are having triple talaq even before the nikaah.

The ongoing tiff between the Congress and the AAP proves that the INDIA alliance is full of contradictions. Apart from regional parties not conceding space to allies in their fiefs, the alliance has to grapple with the national ambitions of parties like AAP that will try to muscle-in in states where the Congress is in direct fight with the BJP. All this is in addition to the intense competition for the top post. The INDIA alliance will have to sort out these contradictions and conflicts on a war footing if it wants to present itself as a viable alternative to the NDA in 2024.