The country is moving towards the last phase of polling. Ahead of the result on June 4, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has called a meeting of the the I.N.D.I.A. bloc. Congress established the I.N.D.I. alliance for the Lok Sabha elections without developing a shared manifesto or a common minimum programme. Additionally, Congress refrained from nominating a Prime Ministerial candidate. This decision could potentially impact the I.N.D.I. alliance adversely. Analysts speculate that if Congress had positioned its president Kharge as the face of the alliance, caste dynamics might have played in their favour. However, the reasoning behind the Gandhi family and their advisors not pursuing this approach remains a subject of curiousity. The meeting has been called to form a strategy on the exit polls and related issues and to take stock of the overall polling on June 1. However, there is no consensus among the constituent parties regarding the I.N.D.I. alliance meeting. TMC leader Mamata Banerjee has already expressed her inability to attend the meeting. Suspicion looms over the participation of other parties as well. Kharge has called this meeting similar to how he did before the assembly elections last year. Kharge announced the convening of the meeting on December 6, even before the results of the assembly elections were announced last year. After the victory in Karnataka and Himachal, Congress had assumed that victory was certain in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh except Rajasthan. But as soon as the results came on December 3, Congress lost the elections in all the states except Telangana. These also included Hindi belt states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. As a consequence of Congress’s defeat, many coalition partners criticised it for contesting elections independently, leading to resentment. Parties like SP, TMC, JDU, and the National Conference openly targeted Congress. Subsequently, Nitish Kumar, the JDU leader and Bihar CM who initiated the I.N.D.I. alliance, grew disenchanted with the coalition. Nitish felt it wasn’t right to remain with the Mahagathbandhan anymore, so he severed ties and returned to the BJP. Essentially, Congress bore responsibility for Nitish Kumar’s departure. Nitish had aspired to lead the Indi alliance, but Congress leaders cautioned against it. Following BJP’s success in three states, it became imperative for the remaining Indi alliance constituents to consolidate.
