New Delhi: Just eight months after its good showing in the Lok Sabha polls, the INDIA bloc seems to be running out of steam with internal bickering and conflicting ambitions resulting in diminishing electoral returns that have once again put the BJP in the driver's seat in national politics.

With the defeat of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi, the number of INDIA bloc governments in the country has come down to eight -- Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

The INDIA bloc was formed in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls with parties, often at loggerheads with each other in states, coming together with the sole objective of defeating the BJP that seemed primed to better its previous tallies in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and managed to stop the BJP from coming to power on its own but theyhad not envision that the electoral fights in the states could get nasty, leading to cracks in the overall alliance.

The Delhi polls have been a case in point. The Congress, the largest constituent of the INDIA bloc, ran a high-decibel campaign against AAP, leading to a lot of bad blood between the two parties.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra launched a no-holds-barred attack on AAP and its convener Arvind Kejriwal with jibes like "architect of the liquor scam" and "sheesh mahal" being a regular feature in their campaign speeches. The INDIA bloc parties such as the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC), though not having stakes in Delhi, threw their weight behind AAP on the grounds that it was best-suited to take on the BJP.

The distance between the Congress and smaller constituents of the INDIA bloc is growing as we saw in the Haryana polls when the Congress and AAP failed to strike an alliance and in Delhi where the two parties took on each other. The INDIA bloc may find it difficult to come together for the Bihar polls as well.

The unease in the bloc and the consequences of bickering were being felt with many leaders voicing their disappointment with the result. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah passed a snide remark on the opposition parties over the Delhi assembly polls. "Aur lado aapas mein!!! (Keep on fighting each other)," Abdullah posted on X with a meme. The CPI(M) also expressed strong disappointment. The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) said the differences in the INDIA bloc paved the way for the saffron party's good show in the national capital.

Congress said the results of the Delhi Assembly election are not a vindication of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies but a referendum on Arvind Kejriwal and AAP.