There are some inherent contradictions within the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), which are likely to weigh down heavily against it at every stage first about success and then about survival, even if it does succeed. As of now, the odds are undoubtedly heavily loaded against the ‘INDIA’.
The inherent contradictions can be judged from the fact that two prominent alliance constituents, the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have already announced their candidates for two important parliamentary constituencies Baharampur (by the TMC) and Wayanad (by the CPM).
While Bahrampur is represented by the Congress leader in the outgoing Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and is likely going to be the party candidate from here, Wayanad is represented by Rahul Gandhi.
First, the presence of the TMC and the CPM, two fiercely opposing parties against each other, is in itself a paradox. Both parties have made it clear that they will not align with each other in West Bengal.
That aside, the TMC has cocked a snook at the Congress by unilaterally announcing all the 42 candidates from West Bengal without taking the party (Congress) into confidence. The Congress has been behaving too timid to the extent that the party president Mallikarjun Kharge went on to say that their doors are open for everyone till the last day of the withdrawal of the nomination papers.
The TMC supremo and the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have not shown much respect for ‘INDIA’ although she did attend a couple of meetings of the alliance in the beginning.
The biggest snub for the Congress from Mamata was fielding popular Indian cricketer Yousuf Pathan from the Baharampur parliamentary constituency against Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who has been representing the constituency continuously since 1999.
Baharampur is a Muslim-dominated constituency with about 52 per cent Muslim votes. With the BJP being more assertive and getting stronger, Mamata expects to consolidate the Muslim community's vote in favour of Pathan. Pathan hails from Gujarat and has represented India, along with his brother Irfan Pathan in international cricket.
Mamata expects the Muslim votes to consolidate behind Pathan and the non-Muslim vote to get divided between TMC, the Congress and the BJP, thus making things difficult for Chowdhury, who is her diehard and long-time critic.
Similarly, the CPM has already announced its candidate from Wayanad parliamentary constituency in Kerala. Wayanad is currently represented by Rahul Gandhi. Although it is not certain whether he will contest from here again, the way the CPM unilaterally announced its nominee from here, was a clear snub for the Congress.
In Kerala, the Congress and the CPM are fiercely opposed to each other. Right now it is the CPM-led Left Democratic Front government in Kerala. Congress leads the opposition United Democratic Front in the state.
Another important partner, the Aam Aadmi Party is placed in a fierce fight against the Congress in Punjab. In Punjab, while AAP is the ruling party with 92 members in a house of 117, Congress is the principal opposition party with 18 legislators. The AAP, however, is fighting in alliance with the Congress in Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat and the union territory of Chandigarh.
In Punjab, the story does not end with the electoral contest alone. The AAP is poaching the Congress leaders in the state. Recently, the Congress Deputy Leader in the Punjab assembly, Dr Rajkumar Chabbewal joined the AAP and is expected to be fielded from the Hoshiarpur parliamentary constituency.
This has not gone well with the Congress leadership in the state. Earlier, some senior Congress leaders and former ministers were put behind bars by the AAP government, which the Congress alleged was a vendetta, while the AAP claimed action against the corrupt.
The Congress, in its desperate bid to see the BJP out, has been trying to go the extra mile about accommodating the alliance partners to strengthen the INDIA formation, irrespective of their behaviour and attitude. The TMC, the CPM and the AAP are examples, where the Congress is trying to be seen to be magnanimous, while in reality the perception going around is that of meek timidity, indeed not the nice perception for a party that aims and vies to replace the BJP.
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