Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance bloc members attend a press conference, after a meeting, in New Delhi, India, June 5, 2024.
Credit: Reuters Photo
New Delhi: It is not just the BJP that will be facing pressure from its prominent partners, the main Opposition party Congress is also set to face troubles within the I.N.D.I.A. as resurgent allies in the running of the Opposition camp.
The initial signs emerged after the first I.N.D.I.A. meeting following Lok Sabha elections on Wednesday when Trinamool Congress appeared to indicate its intentions to form a ginger group within the bloc to push scouting for potential allies to overthrow the Modi government.
Corresponding with Congress’ improved performance Samajwadi Party (SP) has also increased its seats by seven-fold with its supremo Akhikesh Yadav returning to Lok Sabha, while NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Uddhav Thackeray have shown their worth.
One of the issues that allies would be keenly watching is whether the Congress will continue to be accommodative as it did in seat sharing during Lok Sabha elections by restricting itself to fighting 328 seats.
With the party winning 99 seats, allies are not sure about Congress not flexing its muscles in the upcoming state polls as well as on the other platforms, including in Parliament. There are elections to be held in Haryana, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi by early next year.
At the Wednesday meeting, it was “decided” to take “appropriate steps at appropriate time” to realise the “desire” of people to “not be governed” by Modi, but parties like Trinamool were not comfortable with the “waiting game”.
While Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee told the top Opposition leaders that three BJP MPs were in touch with his party, the overwhelming view in the meeting was against rushing into taking any steps to form an “alternative” government.
On Thursday, an undeterred Abhishek met Akhilesh and AAP’s Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha in Delhi before flying to Mumbai to meet Thackeray, indicating that Trinamool is not going to be a “photocopy of someone else’s strategy”, as described by a senior Trinamool leader.
After fighting alone in West Bengal and winning 29, an improvement of seven from 2019, Trinamool does not want to give too much space to the Congress.
It is also to be seen how Akhilesh, who along with Congress Rahul Gandhi, steered the campaign in Uttar Pradesh, would concede at the national stage after increasing his seats from five to 37 and bringing the BJP below his party’s tally in the state.
For Congress, another potential troublemaker will be the AAP as Delhi would be going into elections early next year. AAP has already indicated that there will be no alliance in Delhi, while in Haryana, Congress is unlikely to cede any seats to AAP like it did in Lok Sabha polls.
I.N.D.I.A. bloc will also be looking at the state elections in Maharashtra where there will be intense negotiations. With Congress getting more seats than the allies, the party will seek more seats in the state polls.
The Lok Sabha seat sharing process has seen intense bargaining and it is expected to continue in Assembly polls later this year.
At the same time, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) also will be looking at expansion with its breakaway factions – now considered as the real Shiv Sena and NCP – faring poorly. Already there are speculation about leaders in Shiv Sena and NCP approaching Thackeray and Pawar.
Such a scenario would further complicate the matters for I.N.D.I.A. in Maharashtra.
Jammu and Kashmir election would be another decisive factor, which the I.N.D.I.A. bloc will be watching keenly. In the Lok Sabha elections, PDP was kept out of the seat sharing arrangements as the National Conference refused to accommodate Mehbooba Mufti. However, both Mehbooba and National Conference’s Omar Abdullah had lost the polls.
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