The lifeblood of democracy is a stable government and a strong Opposition to ensure democratic governance, rule of law, and constitutional propriety. In the 2024 general election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party lost its majority by 32 seats but has managed to stay strong at the Centre with the help of two key allies, the JD(U) and TDP. Moreover, by doing spectacularly well in the state elections since then, the BJP/NDA has succeeded in neutralising the loss it suffered in the Lok Sabha poll, while the Opposition squandered the gains and continues to remain fractured.

Despite the contentious nature of the verdicts in Haryana and Maharashtra, which the Opposition alleged were “rigged”, the BJP-led NDA’s success in these states has shrunk the Opposition’s footprint across north India and up to Maharashtra. Whereas, by and large, the Opposition is divided and dysfunctional; its unexpected debacle in Bihar recently, against the backdrop of a contentious SIR, voter deletion, and allegations of several “irregularities” in the electoral process, has not only cost the Opposition an important heartland state but also debilitated the INDIA bloc further, potentially weakening our democracy even more, in the absence of a viable opposition to BJP’s political dominance.

Given its massive election machinery that marches without fatigue, no election is a routine exercise for the BJP. Whether Haryana, Maharashtra, or Bihar, they were not inconsequential defeats for the Opposition but key contests that the INDIA bloc needed to win to assert its relevance and reclaim political space. As much as Maharashtra a year ago, the Bihar loss signifies the Opposition as a........

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