Swati.Mathur@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: With Bihar CM Nitish Kumar turning his back on the opposition alliance, AAP deciding to steer clear of the grand alliance in Punjab and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee cutting Congress and its ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ no slack as it enters West Bengal, INDIA bloc appears precariously poised, having hit a rough patch with no happy ending in sight for now.
Less than two weeks after it decided on Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge as its chairman and offered to appoint Bihar CM Nitish Kumar as convenor, the unspooling of the INDIA bloc has been put in sharp relief by the JDU chief’s U-turn and imminent exit from the alliance, and Mamata’s announcement to go it alone in the Lok Sabha elections. As if imminent exit of Nitish is not enough, difficulties also await the alliance in other states including Kerala, UP, Punjab and Maharashtra.
The first speed breaker in Rahul’s and alliance’s 2024 Yatra will be in West Bengal where the TMC chief has not only refused to yield to requests from Kharge and Rahul to join the east-west yatra “for even five minutes”, but also denied permission to the grand old party for a clutch of public programmes — including Rahul’s scheduled public speech in Siliguri — forcing it to recalibrate the the itinerary in West Bengal.
The serious instability stemming from the eastern region — Mamata’s recalcitrance and Nitish’s U-turn — have created complications in the last stretch just when Congress and allies had hoped to seal seat-sharing and joint programmes and hit the campaign trail.
Despite Congress’ continued confidence that seat-sharing talks are proceeding smoothly in all but a few states, the near stalemate in Bengal, and the breakdown of the alliance in Bihar, have pushed the INDIA bloc into a state of disarray it will struggle to recover from.
The developments in Bihar and Bengal, for instance, are likely to cast a shadow over seat-sharing talks with allies. Though Congress remains hopeful of finalising pre-poll pacts in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, J&K, UP, Jharkhand and Delhi, talks have not materialised so far even in states where the allies are part of pre-existing coalitions.
New Delhi: With Bihar CM Nitish Kumar turning his back on the opposition alliance, AAP deciding to steer clear of the grand alliance in Punjab and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee cutting Congress and its ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ no slack as it enters West Bengal, INDIA bloc appears precariously poised, having hit a rough patch with no happy ending in sight for now.
Less than two weeks after it decided on Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge as its chairman and offered to appoint Bihar CM Nitish Kumar as convenor, the unspooling of the INDIA bloc has been put in sharp relief by the JDU chief’s U-turn and imminent exit from the alliance, and Mamata’s announcement to go it alone in the Lok Sabha elections. As if imminent exit of Nitish is not enough, difficulties also await the alliance in other states including Kerala, UP, Punjab and Maharashtra.
The first speed breaker in Rahul’s and alliance’s 2024 Yatra will be in West Bengal where the TMC chief has not only refused to yield to requests from Kharge and Rahul to join the east-west yatra “for even five minutes”, but also denied permission to the grand old party for a clutch of public programmes — including Rahul’s scheduled public speech in Siliguri — forcing it to recalibrate the the itinerary in West Bengal.
The serious instability stemming from the eastern region — Mamata’s recalcitrance and Nitish’s U-turn — have created complications in the last stretch just when Congress and allies had hoped to seal seat-sharing and joint programmes and hit the campaign trail.
Despite Congress’ continued confidence that seat-sharing talks are proceeding smoothly in all but a few states, the near stalemate in Bengal, and the breakdown of the alliance in Bihar, have pushed the INDIA bloc into a state of disarray it will struggle to recover from.
The developments in Bihar and Bengal, for instance, are likely to cast a shadow over seat-sharing talks with allies. Though Congress remains hopeful of finalising pre-poll pacts in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, J&K, UP, Jharkhand and Delhi, talks have not materialised so far even in states where the allies are part of pre-existing coalitions.