Even before the Delhi assembly election results were out, people had started speculating whether the INDIA bloc was signing its death warrant. Jammu and Kashmir chief minister (CM) Omar Abdullah demanded that members of the bloc should get together to work out a framework for moving forward once the elections ended. Abdullah was worried as bloc members, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress, were contesting against each other in Delhi. His apprehension proved right.

The bloc faces another litmus test in Bihar, where assembly elections are due in November-December. The Tejashwi Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress have been contesting elections jointly here. But, key coalition members regret conceding far too many seats to the Congress in the 2020 assembly elections.

The Congress managed to extract 70 seats for itself in the seat-sharing deal, but won only 19 in the last election. Yadav, in fact, missed the CM’s post by just 13,000 votes and 12 seats. Had the Congress delivered its part of the bargain, Bihar’s political landscape would have been different.

In 2017, after losing the Uttar Pradesh........

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