Right from the day it was started and christened, the Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) has been marred by inherent contradictions. These contradictions are turning into deeper fault lines, which will be difficult to fill in the future.
The latest one is the open confrontation between the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The third party, the Congress is also in the reckoning there but has preferred to leave these three seats to the NC and the PDP.
Although these two parties do not count much at the national level, as their pockets of influence are restricted to just three parliamentary constituencies of Anantnag, Srinagar and Baramulla, it certainly does reflect the cracks that have started to emerge in the ‘alliance’.
Similarly, in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress are fighting against each other. In fact they are daggers drawn against each other, as after the AAP formed government in the state, it was only the former Congress ministers and senior leaders who were booked by the vigilance bureau and many of them were jailed also.
The AAP and Congress have an alliance in Delhi, Haryana and Gujarat. Except for Delhi, other states have negligible AAP presence.
Then comes the Trinamool Congress led by the fiery West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. She unilaterally announced candidates for all the 42 parliamentary constituencies of the state. She does not stop there. She has been openly, rather ferociously, attacking the Congress there. She recently said that the vote for Congress or the Communists will be a vote for the BJP.
Ms Banerjee has fielded former Indian cricketer Yousuf Pathan against Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in the Muslim-dominated Berhampur parliamentary constituency, with an obvious intent to get him defeated somehow. Chowdhury has been representing Berhampur continuously since 1999. He happens to be a bitter critic of Mamata.
Even in the south, the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has turned out to be a bitter critic of the Congress party. He is opposed to the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi fighting from Wayanad saying that he should better fight from Uttar Pradesh where BJP is very strong.
He said, the Congress’ fight is against the BJP and there is no point in contesting from Wayanad in the south, where the BJP has virtually no presence. The ruling CPM, which is a part of the INDIA bloc has fielded senior party leader Annie Raja against Rahul.
Vijayan also blamed the Congress for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal going to jail, saying it was the Congress party, which had complained against him about the Delhi Liquor Policy.
Similarly in Maharashtra also, the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi is facing problems with Prakash Ambedkar of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi deciding to part ways with the INDIA bloc.
The ‘alliance’ is working successfully without many problems mainly in Bihar, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu. In Bihar and Jharkhand the main parties Rashtriya Janata Dal and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha respectively have no option but to side with the Congress lest they face the sweeping BJP onslaught.
Although in Bihar there are issues about some seats like Purulia which is sought by Pappu Yadav, who recently joined the Congress in anticipation of fighting the Lok Sabha elections on the party ticket, which is being resisted by the RJD.
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