THAT SHRINKING FEELING

HAVING FRITTERED THE GAINS OF THE LOK SABHA ELECTION, THE PARTY MUST RECALIBRATE URGENTLY TO AVOID OBLIVION

- KAUSHIK DEKA

CONGRESS

It was a crisp November morning in Kolkata, the day after the assembly election results in Maharashtra and Jharkhand had been announced. Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kalyan Banerjee, never much given to censoring his sarcasm, let it rip with one question. "Why shouldn't Mamata Banerjee lead the INDIA bloc? She has consistently defeated the BJP in Bengal. What has the Congress done lately other than losing elections?" he asked, at a media interaction.

That was like a spear plunged straight and deep into the elephant in the room for the Opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). As its self-appointed captain, the Congress was too prone to waxing and waning erratically. Maharashtra and Haryana were seen as eminently gettable targets after its morale-boosting resurgence in the Lok Sabha polls. Instead, the party brought the curtains down again. By contrast, the TMC swept all six bypoll seats. The sentiment has found resonance among several other allies of the INDIA bloc.

This isn't the first time the Congress has faced such public derision from its allies. After the Haryana humbling, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi had been blunt: the Congress weakens the Opposition in any direct fight with the BJP. Since June, the INDIA bloc has triumphed in two assembly polls where strong regional parties spearheaded the campaign-the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in Jharkhand and the National Conference (NC) in Jammu and Kashmir. The Maharashtra debacle has reignited these conversations, for the Congress managed just 16 of the 101 seats it contested under the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) banner. The MVA's collective tally of 49 in a 288-member house deepens the suspicion among allies that the Congress, rather than leading the INDIA bloc, may be its biggest liability (see The Slide after a Surge).