Congress should protect its interests

Regional parties such as the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party have openly declared their support for their I.N.D.I.A bloc ally, the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, preferring it over the Congress, which is also contesting the Assembly polls in the national capital.

- PANKAJ VOHRA

Their logic is that any of the partners who was in a better position to humble the BJP should be supported in order to achieve the common objective of keeping the Saffron Brigade out.

However, it needs to be asked why this rationale was ignored when the AAP decided to put up nominees in the Haryana elections, knowing fully well that they had no chance of winning. Instead, their presence harmed the Congress, and in the end, assisted the BJP in retaining power.

Similar things happened both in Goa and in Gujarat, and the AAP ended up playing a spoiler for the Congress, which has been going out of the way to accommodate some of its alliance buddies in various elections. It needs to be asked why Akhilesh Yadav sought seats in Madhya Pradesh when the Congress was a stronger party there.

The Nationalist Congress Party (Shard Pawar) and the National Conference have also been making statements that are not consistent with the spirit behind the formation of the I.N.D.I.A bloc. Many in the political circles believe that these two outfits can switch sides, and shall have no qualms of doing business with the BJP, if there was such a necessity. It is not a mere coincidence that the views expressed by both Supriya Sule and Omar Abdullah on EVMs are virtually identical.