All is not well with the INDIA alliance as Delhi goes to the polls, where supposed partners Congress and Aam Aadmi Party will contest separately. 

Two alliance members, the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party, extended their support to the AAP in Delhi.

Omar Abdullah, the J&K chief minister and head of the National Conference, refused to pick sides and said the alliance should be wound up if it existed only for the Lok Sabha polls. Soon after, the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut said not a “single such meeting” of the alliance took place after the Lok Sabha polls and that the “Congress is responsible for this”.

And Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav said the alliance had been formed “just for the Lok Sabha election” and “has no significance now”. 

Where does its future lie? Editorials in three newspapers were grim in their outlook.

Indian Express published an editorial today that said the “crumbling of the INDIA bloc is unsurprising”. Even during the parliamentary polls, the alliance “seemed to be a last-minute patchwork of short-term calculations and compulsions, egos and ambitions, against the dominant BJP, lacking a stitched-together story or theme”.

“...the Opposition alliance faces an existential question that has been raised both within it and outside: What remains of it, and should it even continue to exist?” the editorial said. “The central problem with the INDIA bloc is that the party at its centre is weak and pretends not to know it. Congress, the largest member of the alliance, does not command the respect of its regional allies because its hauteur is not matched by its performance.”

While a “national alternative” to the BJP is a “democratic imperative”, Express said it falls on the Congress to “be bigger and stronger”.

The Tribune struck an equally forbidding note in an editorial headlined “INDIA wilting”.

“The cracks are undoubtedly widening. The alliance is becoming a rudderless ship, if not a sinking one, merely seven months after its creditable performance in the Lok Sabha elections. Who is at the helm?” 

It also placed the onus on the Congress to “keep the bloc intact” as the largest party in the alliance.

“The Gandhis…and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge need to reach out to disgruntled allies. The least they can do is set INDIA’s agenda for this year in consultation with other stakeholders,” The Tribune said. “Letting things drift will be a win-win situation for the BJP.”

Finally, an editorial in Hindustan Times on January 9 pointed out that the fissures in the alliance had come to the forefront when the Congress “refused to accommodate the smaller India bloc allies” during assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra – both of which the Congress lost. 

“The Delhi battle may exacerbate the divisions within the grouping. The Congress is likely to face isolation for at least two reasons,” the editorial said. First, its “treatment of allies after the general election”. And second, its “sharp attacks” on AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal, including Congress leader Ajay Maken calling him “Farjiwal”, which has “alienated” other alliance partners.

“Most regional outfits would prefer a diminished Congress since that will reduce that party’s bargaining power in the upcoming state elections — Bihar will go to polls later this year, followed by Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, and Puducherry in 2026,” it said. 

So, with the alliance back to square one, is it time for a new face to lead it? Read this piece in Newslaundry to find out.

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