Opposition bloc needs serious introspection

Ref: Bold Talk by V Ramu Sarma - "LOSING 'FATAFAT' POLL AFTER POLL, OPPN NETAS FLOUNDER" (HANS, 08-02-2025). Aam Admi Party (AAP) came to power for the first time on the plank of rendering corruption-free government. Congress always depended on its great background in building the nation. BJP is resting on the acrimonious rule of Congress right from the first Prime Minister. Other national and regional parties proved their incapabilities to oppose BJP as there is no charismatic character to counter BJP's suzerain named Narendra Modi. At present, all leaders are ill-competent in convincing the voters/public with Modi's ever freshly coined phrases. As history reveals BJP rose from merely 2 MP seats to this level with the relentless hard work of Vajpayee and Advani and their political heirs. Now, the Congress party should emulate this theory. States under Congress rule now in some states are not burnishing as expected. YSRCP and BRS parties have started challenging the elected governments from day one which smears unnecessary dust on them. Political criticism should not lead to personal abuses and that often causes cuffs from public.

–N S K Prasad, Hyderabad

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INDIA alliance partners do not have unity among themselves. Difference of ideology and hunger for power among them has caused Delhi polls for INDIA alliance. Moreover, Rahul is unfair to be the LoP leave alone leader of the alliance. They are really losing state after state. Furthermore, opposition does not function on people's issues. Their one-line agenda is to dislodge Modi. But Modi charisma, on the other hand, is growing because of the development agenda. The Delhi result is a wake-up call for the opposition. Congress is decimated. AAP's freebie culture has no takers. Serious introspection is needed or else 2029 will be an uphill task for them.

– Sravana Ramachandran, Chennai

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The brand Kejriwal is dented and the tall dream of Arvind Kejriwal to become a national leader is halted for sure. The Punjab bastion of AAP is in doldrums as there is no developmental activity taking place. It is interesting to know what led to the downfall of AAP that remained in power for ten long years, with freebies that the Delhiites wholeheartedly accepted and enjoyed so far. The arrogance of Arvind Kejriwal seems to be the reason for his own downfall and that of his party. He needlessly antagonised the Centre and denied the Delhi electorate of central schemes and advantages wilfully; this proved suicidal for Kejriwal. The BJP is basking in the victory of Delhi assembly elections and an onerous task awaits the party in bringing back Delhi on rails in terms of cleaning of Yamuna river and improving the neglected infrastructure of the NCR. These things can be achieved with the presence of a ‘double engine’ government for sure.

–K R Parvathy, Mysuru

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The write-up by V.Ramu Sharma in his 'Bold Talk' by coming out that Congress party was completely sidelined in Delhi polls after its freefall in the assembly polls in Maharashtra and Haryana is a clear indicator that the party remains a non-factor. In other words, If there is one thing, Rahul Gandhi has only perfected the art of delivering statements with misplaced confidence. As such his repeated attempts invoking "Fatafat" and "Katakat" only exposed his lack of understanding by relying on his coterie's half-baked coaching. Therefore, it needs no reiteration to say that the high-stakes Delhi electoral battle in all aspects was reduced between AAP and BJP only to decide the political stature of Kejriwal. Kejriwal became increasingly disconnected from ground realities. By and large, declining public goodwill compelled the voters to lean towards change by placing their trust in the resurgent BJP.

– K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad

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The media cannot be indifferent to the antics being played out by the opposition, exposing their shallow nationalism and perpetual complaint against Constitutional bodies like Election Commission (EC), calling it by choicest epithets. Akhilesh Yadav of SP and Sanjay Rawat have pushed the criticism against the EC to extreme and uncouth levels – even to question if it is alive or not. This mentality clearly shows the frustration, desperation of the opposition who have begun once again to question EVM, and alleged biased approach by EC to be under the control of the Centre, which is totally irrelevant and ludicrous. Rahul Gandhi is now raking up Maharashtra elections to question how a new electorate of 39 lac voters were added in the assembly voters list which the EC has already clarified time and again as a new electoral roll is prepared with new eligible voters being added that is a routine exercise in any state before the elections.

AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal was behaving no better in this regard. One can even say with certainty that AAP that began as the party of 'common man' radically deviated from its professed path of corruption-free administration as most of its leaders have been behind the bars for pretty long time for various corrupt practices; and the electorate of Delhi have openly asserted their preference this time around for BJP, even as the AAP is levelling poaching allegations. It is very relevantly said that if opposition parties are serious about challenging the BJP, they must abandon diversionary tactics and learn to be more practical and relevantly participative in understanding and addressing true problems of people endearing their cooperation and constructive support – precisely what the BJP is ensuring this and reaping the advantage at present.

– S Lakshmi, Hyderabad

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The Congress and other parties appropriately raised objections to the mismatch of registered voters with adult population data in Maharashtra elections. Many more irregularities were alleged like deletion of voters names belonging to dalit and minority communities, increase in voting percentage after 5pm, etc.,

The Election Commission is continuously found not adhering to its mandate of conducting fair and impartial elections. The nation awaits the intervention by Judiciary to restore the sanctity of democratic institutions, particularly the EC.

–P R Ravinder, Hyderabad