10

May

Election Verdict : What Ails The Opposition 

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Prof Pradeep Mathur


New Delhi | Sunday | May 10, 2026

In our democratic system , especially after the advent of Modi era, we live from election to election. Though the results of the five assembly elections announced earlier this week have hardly sunk in the talk of next year’s elections in seven states and the Lok Sabha’s election in the year 2029 is already in the air. 
But the recent elections or the next year’s election the question that is being asked by everyone is the dismal performance of Opposition parties in assembly elections since the 2024 Lok Sabha verdict. Serious doubts are being caste on the fairness of elections and West Bengal saw the entire campaign being run on the Special Intensive Review( SIR) of the voters list by the Election Commission of India.

There is little doubt that under the Narendra Modi- Amit Shah regime our democratic institutions like Judiciary and media as well as constitutional bodies like the Election Commission and the Governor’s office are under intense pressure affecting their independence of action. 
While it is difficult to comment on the fairness or otherwise of the electoral process it will not be proper to put the entire blame of the Opposition’s dismal performance on electoral malpractices or manipulation. We must keep into account several others factors too.

Though the Opposition’s tireless criticism of this scenario is justified to some extent  this is not sufficient to harness mass support necessary to unseat a  well-entrenched BJP from power. No wonder since the results of five states assembly elections were announced the question which is being asked in political quarters is how the Opposition would stop the juggernaut of the BJP in these states when Mamta Banerjee could not stop it in West Bengal even after putting up a determined fight. More than the loss , the margin of defeat in terms of number of seats the Trinamul Congress suffered gives credence to these doubts. Though they may not say so many Opposition leaders also entertain doubts about their capability to unseat BJP in the near future.
In fact, more than anything the Opposition’s biggest weakness is a lack of self-belief. Many Opposition leaders have developed   a defeatist approach and a fatalist attitude.    Long years in the comforts of power have deprived them of fighting spirit. The non-Congress Opposition leaders hardly realize that the era of clinging to power by manipulation and adjustments is over as BJP has been systematically using them  and then consigning them to political dustbin . Mayawati’s BSP, Navin Patnaik’s BJD, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Nitish Kumar’s JDU are a witness to this.
Besides lack of self- belief and a fighting spirit the Opposition lacks two more things that weakens it. One is a rational and dispassionate view of the emerging political reality and necessary course correction and the other is firm ideological conviction in face of heavy odds. These two factors are the biggest roadblocks in way of the Opposition’s capability to challenge the ruling  BJP-RSS  dispensation . 
Why  I.N.D.I.A ,  an alliance of Opposition parties formed after considerable efforts and much fanfare has not been able to pose formidable opposition to the BJP calls for a deep introspection. The fact that the Opposition alliance has not been able to create a narrative strong enough to successfully challenge the BJP rule   at a time when the Modi Government is coming under heavy criticism for its failure on various fronts, is more surprising. It is apparent that the Opposition needs a SWOT analysis to assess its performance and potential. It must do an intense self-introspection to know as to what is wrong with it and where. 
There are two basic things which the Opposition needs to learn. The first thing is that when it is fighting  with a well-entrenched and powerful opponent like the RSS-BJP combine a loose combination of self-seeking parties coming together to secure electoral gains in competition with each other will not succeed. The other thing is that belief in political ideology is a matter of conviction and not convenience. 
The Opposition alliance is supposed to stand up against the communal and sectarian policies of BJP-RSS combine which is a votary of Hindutva, the Talibanized version of the liberal and all-embracing Hindu faith. However, many leaders who came to the Opposition alliance to fight it have had a close rapport with the BJP and its communal anti-minority approach . At one stage the command of INDIA alliance was close to being given to Nitish Kumar who has been living on the mercy of Modi’s BJP and had come to power with Lallu Yadav’s JDU perhaps to sabotage it from within. What happened in Bihar after that is too obvious to need narration.
It is no secret that Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign was clandestinely sponsored by the RSS and Arvind Kajeriwal, who is said to be an ABVP activist in his student life , pushed out all anti-RSS elements from his outfit be it Prashant Bhushan or Yogendra Yadav. It is also a well-known fact that Kejriwal’s Aam Admi Party damaged the electoral prospects of the Congress in Goa, Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab to the advantage of Modi’s BJP. When his ambition rose sky high he came in clash with Modi and became anti-BJP.


Let us also have a look  at Mamta Didi’s background who has been hailed as the most determined opponent of Modi’s BJP rule. She formed the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the year

1997 by breaking away from the Congress and  facilitated the BJP’s entry into the state. In 1999 she joined the BJP-led NDA government and became the Railway Minister.
In 2001 in an interview to BBC Mamta said that the BJP was their “natural ally.”In 2003 she again joined the NDA government and the RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya called her the “Durga of Bengal.”, a sentiment that was echoed again and again by many  BJP leaders. And as late as in  July 2022, the TMC refused to support Opposition candidate Margaret Alva in the Vice Presidential election. In fact while being with the INDIA alliance all along she worked to break it .
Running with the hare and hunting with the hound  is an old proverb. It should surprise none if with such leaders and parties in its fold  the Opposition is not able to stop the march of a well-organised , affluent  and unscrupulous party in power  election after election.

(Veteran journalist and Media Guru Prof Pradeep Mathur is chief editor of Mediamap News Network and Chairman of MBKM Foundation , a voluntary organisation for social work)

 

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