NEW DELHI: Even as the Congress is making assertions on Opposition unity and leading the anti-BJP front in 2024, the debacle in three North-Eastern states raises questions on the road ahead for Opposition unity and Congress’s compatibility with its alliance partners.
Citing the failed Tripura experiment, where the Congress tied up with the CPM for a pre-poll alliance, analysts and party insiders say that Congress will have to amend its ways to retain its relevance in the run-up to half a dozen assembly polls and 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In its political resolution passed during the Congress plenary session in Raipur in Chhattisgarh, the party said that it will adopt a central role and will go all-out in identifying and mobilising like-minded parties to challenge the BJP- in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
However, political scientist Sandeep Shastri points out that parties need to share ‘political chemistry’ besides electoral arithmetic to win elections.
“The unity has to be seen in terms of the workers at the ground level. The important question is whether the workers at the ground level subscribe to that unity. For voters to really buy the unity argument, it has to be in terms of policy and programmes,” the political scientist said.
Tripura results demonstrate that though Congress has gained from the alliance, it did not work for CPI (M) as its tally of 16 MLAs in 2018 fell to 11 this year. The vote share of the party was down to 24.62 per cent from 42.22 per cent in 2018. However, Congress’s vote share was up from 2 per cent in 2018 to 8.56 per cent now.
A senior Congress leader, who was part of the election campaign in Tripura, admitted that Congress workers did not transfer votes to CPM as they couldn’t come to terms with the alliance with the old rivals.
“The alliance failed because the vote transfer from Congress didn’t happen,” he said requesting anonymity.
Immediately after the election results, Kerala Minister PA Mohammad Riyas lashed out at Congress for the absence of its leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi in the Tripura campaign.
While the Congress takes solace from its victory in three assembly bypolls in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, political observers point out that the credit of the win largely can be attributed to the support of its allies in respective states.