A tale of two: On alliance-building by BJP and Congress

The BJP and the Congress have taken contrasting approaches to building alliances

After raising its stakes in the forthcoming general election by declaring a target of 400 seats along with allies, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is mopping up political partners across the country to resurrect (to bring back something into use or existence that had disappeared or ended) the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Just as the BJP is courting allies with alacrity, the putative alliance (an agreement to work with someone else to try to achieve the same thing) of Opposition parties that appeared on the horizon in mid-2023 is unravelling, if at all it ever took any concrete form. The BJP has announced a tie-up with Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party which had parted ways in 2018 over the issue of unfulfilled promises for Andhra Pradesh. Mr. Naidu has slowly made his way back to the NDA by distancing himself from the Opposition. The BJP is assiduously (in a way that involves great care and attention to detail) courting the Biju Janata Dal, to revive their alliance formed between 1998-2009, in Odisha. The Akali Dal is waiting for the farmers’ agitation (worry and anxiety) to blow over before it could make its next move, potentially to march back to the NDA camp. Efforts are on to bring the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam back into the NDA’s fold in Tamil Nadu. The most striking of all the recent realignments (the act of putting something, or the fact of being put, into a new or correct position, or an instance of this) has been that of Janata Dal (United) chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is now championing a third consecutive (following one after another without an interruption) term for the BJP at the Centre, after calling for its defeat in the preceding months.

A corresponding disarray (a messy or confused condition, showing a lack of organization) is evident (easily seen or understood) in the Opposition camp, as parties and individual leaders are jumping on the BJP bandwagon. The emaciated (very thin and weak, usually because of illness or extreme hunger) INDIA bloc also suffers from incoherence (the fact of expressing yourself in a way that is not clear) with allies such as the Trinamool Congress which, after weeks of talks with the Congress, announced candidates for all 42 seats of West Bengal, leaving nothing for the principal Opposition party. To add insult to injury, Mamata Banerjee has fielded cricketer Yusuf Pathan from Baharampur against Congress state President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has unilaterally (in a way that involves doing or deciding something without first asking or agreeing with another person, group, or country) announced some candidates, threatening the alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the Congress. In Kerala, the Left parties and the Congress, two key proponents (a person who speaks publicly in support of a particular idea or plan of action) of national Opposition unity will be facing off. This usual paradox (a situation or statement that seems impossible or is difficult to understand because it contains two opposite facts or characteristics) is starker (empty, simple, or obvious, especially without decoration or anything that is not necessary) this time, as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and CPI leader Annie Raja are opponents in Wayanad. It is not a coincidence (an occasion when two or more similar things happen at the same time, especially in a way that is unlikely and surprising) that many of the leaders and parties that are taking positions convenient for the BJP, if not openly joining hands with it, are facing investigations by central agencies. This role of the state in influencing (the power to have an effect on people or things, or a person or thing that is able to do this) party politics in India is a disturbing sign for the health of Indian democracy, and also of the inglorious (that people should be ashamed of because it is not fair or honest) records of the many Opposition leaders.

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