INDIA keeps hopes up – if not for tomorrow, then for the long game

Between the figure of 295 Lok Sabha seats now being bandied about by almost every Opposition leader, to the dizzying lows projected by exit polls, lies the real hope and expectation of the INDIA bloc. Despite the bravado, the Opposition realises that stopping the BJP from scoring a hat-trick would be a tough task. What they are looking for are green shoots of recovery in some states, particularly those scheduled to go to Assembly elections later this year and in the near future.

For several INDIA parties, the Lok Sabha elections were the first step to a long road to revival. And their campaign strategies mirrored this strategy.

While Congress leaders claim the party could touch the three-figure mark – the party could win just 44 seats in 2014 and 52 in 2019 – insiders admit it is looking at a more realistic figure between 75 and 80.

Its hopes are majorly riding on some of its allies, but the Congress also believes that bettering the 2014 and 2019 figures would help it shed the image of being a baggage to its allies and the proverbial weak link in tie-ups.

In fact, the Congress contested this time the fewest Lok Sabha seats in its history – 328, as compared to 421 in 2019, 464 in 2019 and 440 in 2009 – with the gambit that even a partial combined recovery could help against the BJP in the coming Assembly elections.

The states where the Congress is hopeful that the INDIA bloc will recover some lost ground include Rajasthan, Haryana, Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka. Of these, Haryana and Maharashtra go to Assembly polls later this year and Bihar next year.

Two of the allies which the Congress went out of its way to accommodate, consequently, were the Samajwadi Party (SP) and RJD, which for their part treated the Lok Sabha