Ahead of key elections, internal choices and alliances are drawing renewed scrutiny.
The Congress appears to have once again taken the wrong path by focusing on the issue of vote theft. Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, will not be able to challenge the NDA by relying on the INDIA bloc’s weak leaders, as this particular political issue has never yielded success. In fact, the Congress has repeatedly found itself exposed on this front. As elections approach, the party often drifts away from core issues to pick up topics that ultimately benefit the BJP. Before the 2024 general elections, the Congress had levelled serious allegations of vote theft against the BJP, blaming EVMs. However, the EVM issue vanished after the results were declared, as the narrative regarding the “Constitution being in danger” and the “threat to reservation” gained traction in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.
The Congress concluded that the EVMs were fine and that no tampering had occurred, so they dropped the issue. In reality, the BJP was defeated in UP and Maharashtra due to concerns over reservation and internal infighting among BJP leaders, while the Jat community played a decisive role in the party’s loss in Rajasthan and Haryana. Consequently, the BJP was restricted to 240 seats. Following the BJP’s failure to secure a majority, the Congress and the opposition aggressively cornered the government in Parliament over these very issues, effectively stalling the proceedings of the 18th Lok Sabha’s initial session— continuing a trend where the Congress has disrupted parliamentary proceedings for the past two and a half years. Ahead of the Bihar elections, the Congress had raised the issue of voter list deletions (SIR), believing that the narrative regarding 6.5 million (65 lakh) names being removed would resonate with the public; however, the strategy backfired.
They failed to find even a single living person whose name had been wrongly deleted. The BJP countered by reminding voters of Lalu Yadav’s “Jungle Raj” and went on to win the election. A look at the elections in Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi, Kerala, and West Bengal reveals that the INDIA bloc suffered defeats largely due to the Congress’s flawed decisions. In Haryana, Rahul Gandhi projected former CM Bhupinder Hooda as the face of the campaign, effectively turning the election into a contest of “Jats versus the Rest.” Several leaders, including MP Kumari Selja, were displeased. Congress members were unhappy with the decision to place their bets on Hooda, a leader who had lost three consecutive elections. The BJP capitalised on Congress’s weakness and won the election; Congress had sensed defeat even before the voting took place. In Maharashtra, a fierce tussle erupted between Uddhav Thackeray and the Congress over the Chief Minister’s post.
The Thackeray faction wanted their leader to be projected as the CM candidate, but Congress did not agree. Meanwhile, several Congress members left the party. The race between Uddhav Thackeray’s party and the Congress to secure more seats became so intense that they ended up undermining each other. Had Rahul not brought Hooda and his son to the forefront in Haryana, and instead projected Uddhav Thackeray as the face in Maharashtra, the results would have been vastly different. In Delhi, the Congress’s objective was to defeat the Aam Aadmi Party. Following the major defeats in these three states, Rahul Gandhi never questioned the Delhi election results because his strategy to damage Kejriwal had succeeded; however, he began raising questions regarding the losses in Haryana and Maharashtra.
