Betrayal in Chennai, Revolt in Kolkata, Distrust in Mumbai & Uncertainty in Lucknow : Crumbling INDIA Bloc
NewsBharati 05-Jun-2026 14:30:00 PM
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The INDIA bloc was presented before the country as a grand coalition of democratic forces. Two years later it looks less like a coalition and more like a collapsing scaffolding. The loudest cracks are no longer coming from outside. They are coming from within.
_202606051436559112_H@@IGHT_400_W@@IDTH_600.jpg "Betrayal in Chennai, Revolt in Kolkata, Distrust in Mumbai & Uncertainty in Lucknow : Crumbling INDIA Bloc")
Maharashtra’s MVA is the third leg of this stool, and it is wobbling. Sharad Pawar’s NCP and Uddhav’s Sena faction are pulling in different directions on seats, strategy and leadership. The Congress, supposed to be the glue, cannot even keep its own state unit united. When the glue fails, the pieces fall.
_202606051437593179_H@@IGHT_400_W@@IDTH_600.jpg "Betrayal in Chennai, Revolt in Kolkata, Distrust in Mumbai & Uncertainty in Lucknow : Crumbling INDIA Bloc")
The question INDIA leaders must answer, but refuse to, is simple. Why is this happening? The easy answer is to blame the BJP. That answer expired long ago. You cannot blame Narendra Modi when the DMK refuses to sit in a meeting you called. You cannot blame Amit Shah when your Bengal ally’s MPs are reportedly in touch with other camps. These are internal contradictions, born of ego, mistrust, and a complete absence of common programme.
At the centre of this drift is Congress credibility, and more specifically, Rahul Gandhi’s leadership. A coalition needs a convenor who listens more than he lectures. It needs a leader who can subsume his party’s interests for the larger goal. Instead, what the allies have seen is unilateralism. The TVK episode is a case study. Extending support without taking the DMK into confidence may have looked like bold politics in Delhi. In Chennai it looked like betrayal. Decades of alliance capital was spent in one press note. Ramchandra Guha, a historian who has never hidden his sympathy for the Congress idea of India, has written repeatedly about the party’s organisational decay and Rahul Gandhi’s limitations. When even your well wishers say the leadership is the problem, the problem is real. The country sees it. More importantly, allies see it.
The political fallout is predictable. Every crack in INDIA strengthens the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Voters do not vote for a coalition that cannot hold a meeting. They do not vote for an opposition that spends more time negotiating with itself than with the people. The BJP, for all its faults, projects stability. The INDIA bloc projects a daily soap.
Worse, the bloc has no programme to paper over these cracks. What is the common minimum vision on economy, jobs, national security, or federalism? Beyond the slogan of saving democracy, what is the governing offer? There is none. A coalition without a programme is a convoy without a destination. It will scatter at the first turn.
And that brings us to the most dangerous turn. As the electoral path looks tougher, sections of the opposition are drifting toward undemocratic methods. Street veto, institutional disparagement, foreign platforms to target domestic processes, these are signs of a bloc that has lost faith in the ballot. Democracy means accepting that you must win the people’s mandate. It does not mean declaring the system rigged because you cannot win. The people must be cautious. When a political force concludes it cannot come to power by democratic means, it begins to look for shortcuts. Shortcuts corrode republics.
The DMK’s distancing, the TMC’s brewing split, the MVA’s squabbles, Akhilesh’s reluctance, all point to one reality. The INDIA bloc is crumbling under the weight of its own contradictions. Congress cannot outsource the blame for this. Leadership is about keeping your house in order before you promise to fix the country. Rahul Gandhi has failed that test. The allies know it. The voters know it. The only people pretending otherwise are in 24 Akbar Road.
Start with Tamil Nadu. The DMK, Congress’s oldest and most loyal ally in the south, has drawn a hard line. It refused to attend a coordination meeting called by Congress after Rahul Gandhi publicly extended support to TVK. For a party that has contested elections shoulder to shoulder with Congress for decades, this public snub is not routine turbulence. It is a rupture. DMK leaders feel betrayed, and they are not hiding it. When your foundational partner in a state of 39 Lok Sabha seats walks out of the room, you do not have a messaging problem. You have a trust problem.
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Move to West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress, the bloc’s other pillar, is on the verge of an internal split. Talk in Delhi’s political circles is that close to 20 TMC MPs are weighing their options. Whether they switch or not, the fact that such numbers are even in circulation tells you how brittle the party’s internal cohesion has become. Mamata Banerjee built TMC by being the anti-Congress force in Bengal. She joined INDIA for arithmetic, not for affection. That arithmetic no longer adds up.
Maharashtra’s MVA is the third leg of this stool, and it is wobbling. Sharad Pawar’s NCP and Uddhav’s Sena faction are pulling in different directions on seats, strategy and leadership. The Congress, supposed to be the glue, cannot even keep its own state unit united. When the glue fails, the pieces fall.
Akhilesh Yadav’s discomfort is now an open secret in Lucknow. Seat-sharing in UP is a minefield, and the SP sees no reason to carry Congress baggage when the returns are negligible. The pattern is clear. From Chennai to Kolkata to Mumbai to Lucknow, the bloc’s key partners are either distancing, sulking, or preparing exit ramps.
The question INDIA leaders must answer, but refuse to, is simple. Why is this happening? The easy answer is to blame the BJP. That answer expired long ago. You cannot blame Narendra Modi when the DMK refuses to sit in a meeting you called. You cannot blame Amit Shah when your Bengal ally’s MPs are reportedly in touch with other camps. These are internal contradictions, born of ego, mistrust, and a complete absence of common programme.
At the centre of this drift is Congress credibility, and more specifically, Rahul Gandhi’s leadership. A coalition needs a convenor who listens more than he lectures. It needs a leader who can subsume his party’s interests for the larger goal. Instead, what the allies have seen is unilateralism. The TVK episode is a case study. Extending support without taking the DMK into confidence may have looked like bold politics in Delhi. In Chennai it looked like betrayal. Decades of alliance capital was spent in one press note. Ramchandra Guha, a historian who has never hidden his sympathy for the Congress idea of India, has written repeatedly about the party’s organisational decay and Rahul Gandhi’s limitations. When even your well wishers say the leadership is the problem, the problem is real. The country sees it. More importantly, allies see it.
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Worse, the bloc has no programme to paper over these cracks. What is the common minimum vision on economy, jobs, national security, or federalism? Beyond the slogan of saving democracy, what is the governing offer? There is none. A coalition without a programme is a convoy without a destination. It will scatter at the first turn.
And that brings us to the most dangerous turn. As the electoral path looks tougher, sections of the opposition are drifting toward undemocratic methods. Street veto, institutional disparagement, foreign platforms to target domestic processes, these are signs of a bloc that has lost faith in the ballot. Democracy means accepting that you must win the people’s mandate. It does not mean declaring the system rigged because you cannot win. The people must be cautious. When a political force concludes it cannot come to power by democratic means, it begins to look for shortcuts. Shortcuts corrode republics.
The DMK’s distancing, the TMC’s brewing split, the MVA’s squabbles, Akhilesh’s reluctance, all point to one reality. The INDIA bloc is crumbling under the weight of its own contradictions. Congress cannot outsource the blame for this. Leadership is about keeping your house in order before you promise to fix the country. Rahul Gandhi has failed that test. The allies know it. The voters know it. The only people pretending otherwise are in 24 Akbar Road.
Editor's Desk
Editor's Desk