A recent trend being assessed in the ongoing Assembly by-polls in various States clearly illustrates that the smaller parties are dictating terms to the congress party within their own political turf. If we go State after State then we observe that the Congress party is snubbed by its allies and smaller parties too. In Bihar Lalu Yadav was a reliable and long-term ally of the Congress party. But Lalu Yadav’s party the Rashtriya Janata Dal is not sharing even one seat with the Congress party.
The RJD had not even formally consulted with the Congress party in terms of seats and even for campaigning in the by-polls. This treatment is meted out to the Congress party even when the Congress party’s strengthened during the Lok Sabha election in Bihar. The Congress party won only one seat in 2019 in Bihar which increased to three seats in 2024 LS election in Bihar.
In Uttar Pradesh 9 Assembly seats are going to the by-polls but the Samajwadi Party is not sparing even one seat for the Congress party. The Congress party is looking for honorable seat sharing with the SP in the by-polls but Akhilesh Yadav take strong decision and showed to the Congress party that in 2024 the improved performance of the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh was on account of the SP base. Now the Congress party will secretly instruct its cadres on the seats to ensure defeat of the SP so that the SP will take the Congress party seriously for political negotiations.
One of the biggest snubs for the Congress party came from West Bengal where the Communist parties even snubbed the Congress party. The Communist parties have not even considered the Congress party for seat negotiation and announced their own candidates. The Congress party has high hopes from West Bengal in this round of Assembly by-polls on six seats. The Congress party performed even beyond its expectations in 2023 Sagardighi Assembly by-poll vacated due to demise of the All India Trinamool Congress Party MLA Subrata Saha.
In the by-poll on the Muslim dominated Assembly seat the Congress party candidate Bayron Biswas won the seat. This result surprised the Congress party more than its opponents. Last time the Congress party won the seat in 1972. The Congress party won the seat by improving its vote share by nearly 2.5 times than its 2021 Assembly poll performance. Though the MLA Bayron Biswas had joined the AITC sooner than later. The Congress party was hoping that due to its performance on Sagardighi Assembly seat the Communist parties will consider with honour but against the expectations the Communist parties snubbed the Congress party.
The Congress party alliance with the Communist is against all their principles as in Kerala these parties are the main opponents. They accuse each other on multiple issues on regular basis. In Tripura these two parties were main opponents till 2018 but after advent of the BJP in States politics and directly getting to power these parties came together forgetting all their previous political fisticuffs. The Communist and the Congress were the main opponents in West Bengal too but after advent of Mamata Banerjee and the BJP in the State these political parties came together.
In Rajasthan there is no alliance among the INDI Alliance parties. On three Assembly seats the Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP), the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) have fielded candidates in their own political strongholds and on three seats there is triangular contests. The BJP is all set to compensate the drubbings of the Lok Sabha election in Rajasthan in the Assembly by-polls. From Khinwsar Assembly seats the RLP chief RLP chief Hanuman Beniwal had fielded his wife Kanika Beniwal. Hanuman Beniwal was looking for support from the Congress party for his wife but he was disillusioned by the Congress party. This round of by-polls in Rajasthan will script long term political chapter for the INDI Alliance in the State.
This all is happening with the Congress party due to its poor performance in Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The Congress party took more than double of its strength seats in Jammu and Kashmir by its alliance partner the National Conference and after then put seven candidates against the NC candidates too in friendly contest. Consequently in government formation the NC had completely ignored stakes of the Congress party.
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