NEW DELHI: The demoralising defeat of the INDIA bloc parties – AAP and Congress — in the Delhi assembly elections has brought out the internal contradictions in the grand old party, with leaders appearing to be not on the same page on its alliance strategies.
While some Congress leaders defended the party’s position saying that AAP was unwilling to forge an alliance in the assembly polls, another section differed with the view, while calling for introspection and coherent political strategy.
In a post on X, Congress MP Tariq Anwar said that the party needs to clarify its political strategy. “They have to decide whether they will do coalition politics or go it alone. Also, it has become necessary to make fundamental changes in the party’s organisation,” he wrote. Another leader, Rashid Alvi said that the grand-old party needs to “respect all parties in the INDIA bloc” if they want to defeat the BJP.
“This election has forced them to think that the BJP has won because of us. If we want to defeat the BJP, we must respect all parties in the INDIA alliance and strengthen the coalition” he said.
However, fending off criticism, Congress MP and whip in the Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore asserted that the INDIA bloc was formed for general elections 2024 and state-specific alliances were the way forward in the assembly polls.
“One thing is very clear - the INDIA alliance was created for the general elections 2024. In different states, different strategies were evolved in those polls also. The Aam Aadmi Party and Congress had an alliance in Delhi but not in Punjab,” he said. “In assembly elections, Arvind Kejriwal announced on December 1 that they are fighting alone. We hope that our alliance partners will also understand that they are asking the wrong person, they should ask the question to the person who broke the alliance,” Tagore added.
He asserted that the INDIA bloc was formed particularly for the general elections in 2024. “Its main idea was to channelise the anti-Modi, anti-BJP anti-RSS forces at one level, which has been done. After that, coordination in Parliament has been happening at the floor level,” he said.
“The speech of the leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi had talked about an INDIA bloc vision as an alternative vision, it was not just a vision of the Congress. So we are positive towards the INDIA bloc, but we know how one alliance partner’s reaction can spoil it,” he said. “State elections are going to be different. State elections are going to be fought on state-level alliances. In Parliament, we are coordinating and our LoP calls it an INDIA bloc vision,” Tagore said.
On Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Ram Gopal Yadav’s criticism and some sections calling the Congress arrogant, Tagore said, “We are humble and polite that is why they are speaking and we are keeping mum.” Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said the INDIA bloc parties need to come together to decide the way forward to throw a challenge to the BJP, and fighting each other is not going to help.
“We need safeguards in our democracy, Constitution -- that is why the INDIA alliance came together. In case we are going against that entire concept, ensuring that everyone gets defeated, and are busy defeating each other, it does not serve the purpose we came together for,” Chaturvedi said.