CONGRESS AND ITS PROSPECTS OF GOING SOLO IN 2024

If ideology is one tricky area for the Congress in a polarised polity, even in terms of pragmatic seat-sharing, the regional players will push it to concede more seats than in 2019

- SUGATA SRINIVASARAJU

GOING by the deep flux in the nation's political landscape, one is tempted to ask if it is not better for the Congress to go it alone in 2024 instead of lugging along the burdens of the rest. A similar question was asked by regional parties in the recent past: should they quietly manage their turfs and terrains instead of sinking with the Congress? Even when the Bharat Jodo Yatra was happening, not many regional leaders were ready to walk alongside Rahul Gandhi.

But things somewhat changed: with great circumspection and palpable contradictions, an alliance was formed (or is still forming) a few months ago. The secular-regional entities and the secular national party buried their differences to fight the Narendra Modi-led BJP. They gave themselves the most contrived acronym to sound like a single force: I.N.D.I.A.

However, even as we began to think that the alliance had started off rather well after three meetings in Patna, Bengaluru and Mumbai, there are already signs of implosion written all over. Even before the overcrowded coordination committee constituted after the Mumbai edition could meet in mid-September, there was virtually a tornado uprooting the trees.

Look at the controversy that has just erupted over Udhayanidhi Stalin's statements vis-à-vis the 'eradication' of 'Sanatana Dharma'. His statement was cleverly interpreted as containing 'genocidal intent" by many on the extreme right because he used the language of pestilence and pandemics. Even without this extreme interpretation, the statement has quietly served the majoritarian impulse of the BJP and the defenders of the faith.