Choke or Choker is a term normally used in cricketing parlance to describe a team or a player who wilts under pressure, particularly in the last stages of a match. For example, if a team is chasing a total and is well on course to victory but collapses or is unable to bear the pressure in the dying stages, the word choker comes into play for them.

There is no term coined yet for a team strained under pressure from the word go or from the very beginning. Probably such a situation has not arisen yet in the game of cricket. And it is implausible to perceive a team or a player entering the field under pressure and choking in the first over.

From cricketing to the world of politics, the word choker has relevance but with different connotations. What the cricketing world is still to discover, political parties in India have already found. And the credit for this discovery goes to Congress — the Grand Old Party (GOP).

At least three recent developments, two importantly pertaining to the Bihar Assembly elections, and the third related to the Rajya Sabha polls — the first since Jammu and Kashmir became a Union Territory — and the accompanying Assembly by-election, have portrayed the GOP in a very poor picture. Chokers even before pressure began building on them.

In the context of the Bihar elections, it is baffling why Congress was reluctant to declare Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader, Mr Tejashwi Yadav, as the Chief Ministerial candidate of the opposition ‘Mahagathbandhan’. The RJD is the biggest party in the alliance contesting the largest number of seats, and he being the former Deputy Chief Minister.........

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