To be sure, the BJP has always had an edge vis-a-vis the Congress except in 2009. The fact that more than half of the BJP’s seats have come in direct contests against the Congress and the latter is increasingly finding it difficult to challenge the BJP is the biggest challenge before the anti-BJP opposition in India. This number came down to just 15 in 2019. In 2014, the Congress defeated the BJP to win 23 Lok Sabha segments. While its seat tally improved marginally between 20, its performance against the BJP went down. The Congress’s tally was just 44 and 52 in 20. The BJP won 282 and 303 Lok Sabha seats in 20 166 and 175 of these were in constituencies where the Congress was the runner-up. An HT analysis of the Trivedi Centre for Political Data (TCPD) database shows that the Congress’s weak performance has played a major role in this. It replicated this feat, with an increased majority, in 2019. In 2014, the BJP became the first party to get a majority in the Lok Sabha since 1984. However, if the meeting of opposition leaders at Sharad Pawar’s residence in Delhi – Aam Aadmi Party, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), All India Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party attended, the Congress did not – is any indication, the opposition camp is already trying to build a strategy for 2024.Īny such strategy, as was obvious in the initiative at Pawar’s residence, will have to grapple with the question of what to do with the Congress.ġ) Congress has been the weak link in the BJP’s rise since 2014 To be sure, the next general elections are still three years away. The Congress’s Kerala defeat defying a four-decade trend is a proof of this. What is even worse for the Congress is the fact that its vulnerabilities go beyond fights against the BJP.
However, the Congress seems incapable of delivering on this task at present. The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) bounced back from a position of perceived weakness in West Bengal. It has realised that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can be defeated, even when it seems to have an edge. The results have thrown an interesting challenge to the Opposition in the country. The latest assembly election cycle that included the states of Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu coincided with two years of the second Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
0 kommentar(er)
