In the past few months, especially after the Congress registered a victory in the assembly elections in Karnataka in May, there was a spring in the step of Congress leaders and workers. The party approached the assembly elections in November with confidence and what it felt was a winning formula it derived from Karnataka.
A win in Telangana, however, has been overshadowed by the party's wipeout in the three Hindi heartland states-Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. With just months to go for the Lok Sabha elections, the defeat in the three states comes as a huge dampener for the principal opposition party, raising serious questions about its electoral strategy to counter the BJP.
The Congress had hoped to win at least two of the heartland states. It was confident of holding on to Chhattisgarh, hopeful of wresting Madhya Pradesh and was trying to beat the revolving door politics of Rajasthan to stay in power. Having a foothold in the region would have provided the party with a much-needed morale booster in the Lok Sabha polls. However, the party finds its national footprint greatly diminished. In the Hindi belt, it is in power only in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh. Its other two states, Karnataka and Telangana, are down south. It is a junior ally in the ruling alliances in Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Bihar.
This story is from the December 17, 2023 edition of THE WEEK India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the December 17, 2023 edition of THE WEEK India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Divides And Dividends
Contrasting narratives on the scrapping of Article 370 define the elections in Jammu and Kashmir
Playing it cool
Everybody knows what 420 means in the Indian context. But in American parlance it is something very different: four-twenty or 4/20 or April 20 denotes cannabis celebration; its cultural references are rooted in the hippie culture of the 1960s and 1970s.
The heroine's new clothes
Who else but Sanjay Leela Bhansali could bring on a wardrobe reset like the one in his just-dropped period piece—an eight-part Netflix series called Heeramandi?
AI & I
Through her book Code Dependent—shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction—Madhumita Murgia gives voice to the voiceless multitudes impacted by artificial intelligence
Untold tales from war
Camouflaged is a collection of 10 deeply researched stories, ranging from the world wars to the 26/11 terror attacks
Hair force
Sheetal Mallar, in her photobook Braided, uses hair as a metaphor to tell a story that is personal yet universal
THE WHITE TIGER GAVE ME CONFIDENCE IN MY ABILITIES
The first time Adarsh Gourav made an impression was in Ramin Bahrani's 2021 film The White Tiger, a gripping adaptation of Aravind Adiga's Booker-winning novel.
The art of political protest
The past doesn’t always remain in the past. Sometimes, it emerges in the present, reminding us about the universality and repetitiveness of the human experience. Berlin’s George Grosz Museum, a tiny gem, is a startling reminder that modern political and social ills are not modern. Grosz lived through World Wars I and II, shining a torch into the heart of darkness in high-ranking men and women—who were complicit in the collapse of the world as they knew it.
REFUELLING DYING SATELLITES
A Chennai company is making waves in the world of space tech startups
DIVERSITY IN UNITY
THE SOUTH ASIAN COMMUNITY IN THE US HAS SEVERAL THINGS IN COMMON, BUT WHEN IT COMES TO THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS, THERE ARE WIDELY DIFFERING OPINIONS AND FEELINGS