By 2024 India will go to the polls to elect members to the next 18th Lok Sabha and in effect, also decide which party or coalition will form the government. The BJP led by prime minister Narendra Modi will be fighting to win a third successive term. The BJP is today not only the biggest political party in India and the world but also the richest and most well organized. It is backed by a totally committed and disciplined army of RSS cadres with strength in terms of not less than fifty to sixty lakhs. The BJP itself is reported to have somewhere around 18 crore members across India and has today reached almost every state in India. The BJP came to power in 2014 with a huge margin and repeated the win with a huge landslide in 2019. The Congress which headed the UPA I and II lost heavily winning only 44 seats in 2014 and despite the alleged failures of the BJP under Modi and speculations of a Congress revival the party could hardly manage 52 seats in 2019. All these statistics does not mean that the size and resources of a political party guarantees power. The Congress experienced this in 1977 when, despite being the only dominant political party, suffered a jolt at the hands of the Janata Party, formed by political parties with diverse ideologies and agenda. Only anti-Indiraism brought them together.Today the opposition parties are as formidable in their own right- Congress, Trinamool Congress, DMK, Shiv Sena, NCP, Samajwadi Party, RJD etc. On the strength of its all-India presence and having won at least 20% of votes in the 2019 election, the Congress should have been the natural choice to head the opposition alliance. Unfortunately, the dynastic party run by the troika –mother, son and daughter- has not shown maturity and leadership qualities required to lead the party at a time when it was needed the most. This is a major syndrome that has led many Congress men and women to leave the party because the party is fast losing relevance. Politics is about winning but taking on the BJP in 2024 is another matter. With Congress unable to rise about family interests and the party losing elections in a routine manner, the supposed empty space as the political alternative is being contested by Mamata Banerjee. After the unbelievable win by routing the rising BJP, the Trinamool Congress supremo sees herself as one who can rightly lead the combined opposition. Mamata may be more than buoyed by her win in Bengal against BJP but she is on a wrong footing if she thinks opposition will unite under her. Mamata has trained her guns at the Congress and in particular Rahul Gandhi. This is not going to help her indirectly. At such time, a unified approach instead of political unity, can happen early if the family realises it is not time for dynastic politics but realistic politics.
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