New Delhi: Kairana results have given a big morale booster to the opposition parties. The opposition parties have wrested two out of three Lok Sabha seats from the ruling party and won 9 out of 10 assembly seats in Thursday’s bypolls. Now it is a challenge for the Congress and other opposition parties how they take advantage of the gains and take it as an opportunity to change people’s mood in their favour. Being the biggest opposition Congress leadership shoulders the bigger responsibility. Congress has to establish its credentials as the main anti-BJP force in its electoral battles against BJP in saffron dens of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
After Phulpur and Gorakhpur, Congress and anti-BJP regional parties gave a big jolt to the Modi-Yogi duo. The opposition parties sank their differences and held to their turfs thus breaching BJP strongholds. In Kairana without falling prey to polarisation attempts, an SP-BSP-Congress-RLD alliance stayed focused on Modi-Adityanath regimes’ incumbency burdens. The same strategy can be adopted in 2019. If the elections are fought with the same unity and strategy the alliance has the potential to upset BJP’s applecart at the Centre.
The coming elections will also be a test of Rahul Gandhi’s political skills; how he would accommodate SP and BSP without sacrificing the party interest.