From the Urdu Press: ‘Congress’s prudent new strategy against BJP’, ‘MVA steals march over Mahayuti in seat-sharing deal’

With barely three days left for the first round of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections to get underway, campaigning by all the contenders in the fray has reached a crescendo. The Urdu dailies have kept their focus on the poll coverage from across the country, highlighting that the outcome of the direct face-offs between the incumbent BJP and the Congress, the largest player of the Opposition INDIA bloc, in about 190 seats will essentially shape the narrative of the 2024 grand battle.

Underlining the significance of direct fights between the Congress and the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls, the New Delhi edition of Inquilab, in its leader on April 14, says the Congress has been in the BJP’s crosshairs since 2014. “Its top brass was attacked, its state governments were toppled or disrupted, its leaders were targeted by agencies, its sitting or ex-legislators were lured or pressured and were rewarded upon defection, Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from Parliament, and the party’s bank accounts were frozen,” the daily writes. These attempts were mounted to cripple the grand old party, which still has its units and bases throughout the country after having been in power for most of the years since Independence.

“The BJP gave the slogan ‘Congress-mukt Bharat (Congress-free India)’, singling it out as its principal rival as the party is aware that regional parties cannot challenge it nationally and that it could deal with them easily in due course when required,” the editorial says. “If one looks at the BJP’s current election rallies, especially the speeches delivered by PM Modi, it is evident that the Congress remains their main target. It begs the question, does the Congress still pose a threat to the BJP?”

The answer to this question