The Mahagathbandhan faced a crushing electoral defeat on Friday as the BJP-led ruling coalition secured 202 seats in the Bihar Assembly. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also sounded the poll bugle for upcoming polls in Assam and West Bengal during his victory speech — vowing to end “jungle raj” in the eastern state. The stunning rout has since sparked calls for introspection and change in leadership within the INDIA bloc.
“It is clear that the Congress can’t stop the BJP. The leadership position must go to a party which has a track record of defeating the BJP. Only Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has an unblemished record of defeating the BJP. The time has come for Banerjee to lead the Opposition group,” said TMC Lok Sabha MP Kalyan Banerjee.
According to a Hindustan Times report, an influential splinter group has formed within the INDIA bloc comprising of TMC, Aam Aadmi Party, Shiv Sena and the Samajwadi Party. The dissenters have now begun making their own plans — prioritising regional issues and chalking out its own strategy without toeing the Congress line. The four parties collectively have 77 seats in the Lok Sabha while the Congress holds 99 constituencies.
PM Modi predicts Congress split
Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at the Opposition during his victory speech on Friday night — predicting that the Congress was headed towards another split. he claimed that the Opposition party had no positive vision for India and accused it of “making frivolous complaints about baseless issues like vote chori“.
“The truth is that today, Congress, and I say this very seriously, today Congress has become the Muslim League Maoist Congress… And the entire agenda of Congress now runs on this. And because of this, even within Congress, a new branch is emerging, which is even worse than this negative politics. And I have a suspicion that there may be another big division of Congress in the future. And friends, the supporters of Congress have also begun to understand that Congress is drowning everyone in its negative politics. Everyone is drowning at the same time,” he alleged.
Congress holds introspection meeting
Rahul Gandhi met party president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday morning to discuss the Bihar assembly election results. The two were joined by AICC general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal, party treasurer Ajay Maken and AICC Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru.
The Leader of Opposition had insisted on Friday that the election result was surprising — adding that the party could not achieve much since the polls were ‘not fair from the very beginning’. Gandhi also said the Congress and the INDIA bloc would conduct an in-depth review of the results.
