NO MATTER the claims of different leaders, a strange quiet prevails in the INDI Alliance forged by several parties in the Opposition camp. For the past quite some time, there is no actual news from the Indi Alliance. Whatever is available is just a spate of speculations about what may be actually happening in the grouping. The picture is strange in every which the way. The Congress party, the largest in almost every term of all the constituent parties, appears to be claim the most natural right to be the leader of the Indi Alliance. Other parties, led by the likes of Mr. Nitish Kumar or Ms. Mamata Banerjee, for example, appear to have stopped communicating with one another on issues of common interest. Going by details, the Indi Alliance suggests that it is going down slowly to an irretrievable state. When the parliamentary elections are just a few months away, this condition of the so-called most important Opposition grouping offers only one impression -- it is stalling itself. In the five States where legislative elections are taking place, the fight almost everywhere is between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. Most other constituents of the Indi Alliance have no role to play in the political fields there.

 

With most other members of the grouping having been with only marginal role to play, the Congress party is assuming to role of the main Opposition outfit to confront the BJP or the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). What has happened internally in the Indi Alliance is naturally not known outside its walls. But there are reasons to wonder why Ms. Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) or Mr. K. Chandrasekara Rao of Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) or Mr. M.K. Stalin of Dravida Munethra Kazagham (DMK) have fallen silent almost all of a sudden. If these leaders appear to have developed certain doubts about the Opposition’s future in elections, Mr Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party (SP) with best presence in Uttar Pradesh has openly declared that his party would not appreciate to work together with Congress party because of its isolationist attitude. And the ever mercurial Mr. Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has developed serious mutual issues with the Congress party -- thereby pushing him away from the grouping. And to say the least, Mr. Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal United (JDU) has also openly expressed doubts about the integrity of the Congress party.

 

This is more or less the overall condition of most members of the Indi Alliance, as most political observers can see. The grouping, thus, has developed cracks before it could finalise its seat-sharing formula across the country. Looking at the overall scenario, thus, election strategist Mr. Prashant Kishore has declared that the Indi Alliance is already an inoperable proposition. Appearing to speak frankly, Mr. Prashant Kishore has made damning predictions about the electoral prospects of the Indi Alliance. How does the grouping sort out these real-life issues? To this question, there appears to be no answer at least for the present. In time to come, most members f the Indi Alliance may come together some how and forge a hastily stitched strategy of contesting the Lok Sabha elections. But that will actually spell its own doom in the very challenging electoral scenario of 2024. The point to be made here, thus, pertains to the looseness and casualness with which the Opposition camp is conducting itself. Despite all the tall talk, it has achieved nothing spectacular during the Indi Alliance meetings. It has not even finalised its seat-sharing formula. Beyond spoiling the quality of political discourse, the Indi Alliance, thus, has achieved nothing.