Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s recent speech claiming “Only the Congress can defeat the BJP” is directed at his party’s regional allies. He declared that none of them were capable of taking on the ruling party: “All the other parties will not be able to stand against them (the BJP); they will not be able to unite, and only the Congress will be left standing, and we will defeat them.” The statement can be read as sheer grandiloquence or as an admonition to regional parties to fall in line.

Gandhi was making two points. First, that the ideological battle was purely between the Congress and the BJP, because there were “only two ideologies” in diametric opposition. By implication, the regional parties are ideologically flexible and prone to alliances of convenience. Second, he was questioning the ability of the regional parties to take on the BJP, given the fact that they have fallen like dominos since the 2024 general elections: the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SP) in Maharashtra, the RJD in Bihar, the AAP in Delhi, the TMC in West Bengal, and the DMK in Tamil Nadu.

Congress signals renewed confidence

The renewed rhetoric about ‘going it alone’ is being heard in Congress circles, signalling not just confidence in the wake of a comprehensive win in Kerala and the prospect of a place in the Tamil Nadu government after 55 years, but hope that India’s........

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