THE ROAD TO REVIVAL

If the Congress and allies are seeking credibility, the MOTN findings offer reassurance and caution. They have arrested the slide, made gains. The Bihar polls will be a litmus test

- By KAUSHIK DEKA

Indian politics is moving into a season of reckoning.

After a decade of BJP dominance that has reshaped not just electoral politics but the very grammar of political discourse in India, the Opposition finds itself at a crossroads. The defeats in Haryana and Maharashtra last year were particularly bruising, coming as they did after the small win of denying the BJP an outright majority on its own in the 2024 general election. These setbacks have exposed the fundamental weaknesses of the Opposition INDIA bloc: the inability to convert anti-incumbency into electoral victories, the challenge of maintaining alliance cohesion beyond the heat of the general election and, most critically, the struggle to construct a narrative that resonates beyond urban echo chambers and social media algorithms.

It now confronts another critical test: the Bihar assembly election later this year. It is here that leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s persistent charge of “vote chori” and the Opposition’s shared doubts over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls will face their moment of truth, either transforming into a force of mobilisation or revealing the limits of rhetoric against the organisational machinery of the ruling NDA.

Against this backdrop, the latest INDIA TODAY Mood of the Nation poll—the last before Bihar heads for election—offers a revealing snapshot of the Opposition’s standing. It shows where the Congress and its allies hold ground, and how much space remains for reinvention. For a fragmented Opposition seeking credibility, the findings carry both reassurance and caution.