That all is not well with the I.N.D.I.A alliance is not hidden from the people. The deadline for completing the task of seat-sharing among its 28 constituents has come and gone, but in not one State has this task been accomplished. Even in Maharashtra where there is already a three-party alliance — Maha Vikas Aghadi — in place, there are bitter recriminations with both the Shiv Sena (Uddhav) and NCP (Sharad) sticking to pre-split numbers, refusing to take into account the depletion of their ranks from the MPs and MLAs down to the village level workers. The Congress party argument that these parties cannot dictate seat-sharing on the basis of their pre-split numbers has some validity. The Sena (Uddhav) may claim that it is the biggest party in the MVA, but it cannot force the Congress to close its eyes to the vertical split, with the Shinde faction walking away with the bulk of MLAs and MPs. Anyway, these recriminations among allies are expected to go on till the filing of the nominations for the Lok Sabha poll. Whether the leaders of these constituents realise it or not, the tussle over seat-sharing further mars the public perception of the alliance among the voters. As it is, ordinary people have little faith in what is called a “khichdi sarkar”. The longer the bitter bargaining over seats continues, the more damage will it do to the image of the putative anti-BJP alliance.
Without mutual trust and camaraderie among leaders, there can be no smooth sailing for the I.N.D.I.A group. The latest move by the Congress party to sponsor the candidature of JD(U) President and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is, quite clearly, a counter to the Mamata Banerjee-Arvind Kejriwal ploy to propose Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s name for the alliance’s prime ministerial candidate. Unsurprisingly, the Gandhis found it a mischievous plan to embarrass them. By proposing to appoint Nitish Kumar as the convenor of the alliance the Congress wants to get him into its corner, especially when Mamata Banerjee had earlier shot down such a move. Despite his denials, Nitish not only desired the convenor’s position but he also harbours the ambition of becoming the prime ministerial candidate, hoping that the main contenders will pull one another down, thus clearing the field for him to emerge as a compromise candidate. For someone who is unable to ensure the smooth functioning of the alliance government in Bihar, to manage an all-India alliance of 28 parties seems an uphill task. Recent reports suggested that the JD(U) President Rajeev Ranjan Singh was eased out by Nitish following reports that he was colluding with the RJD to replace Nitish with Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav. With such intrigues and betrayals between alliance partners in the ruling coalition, ordinary people in Bihar can hardly expect good governance. However, if the Congress now wants Nitish as convenor of I.N.D.I.A, it is clear that other members of the alliance were not consulted. With such low trust among alliance parties, what hope can it have of unitedly fighting the Narendra Modi-led BJP?
Meanwhile, the decision of the Congress Party, the biggest in the alliance, to despatch Rahul Gandhi on another Bharat Jodo Yatra from Manipur to Mumbai seems to have been motivated to try and keep the public focus on him. Whether these yatras enhance his image or that of the party remains unclear. In the latest round of Assembly polls the party lost the three Hindi heartland states after Yatra 1:0. If the party won in Karnataka and Telangana it was more because of the strong local leaders than any contribution Rahul could have made to the outcome. However, since the party is bent on thrusting greatness on the Gandhi dynast, there can be no hope of releasing it from the little finger of the Gandhi scion. To put it bluntly, so long as the Congress remains hostage to the Gandhis, it will remain the main stumbling block for wider Opposition unity.
