Why does the Haryana election result put the ‘psychological’ pressure back on the opposition MVA in Maharashtra? – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Have Haryana’s election results neutralized the ‘psychological advantage’ that the Congress-led opposition claimed to gain after the Lok Sabha polls? Rahul Gandhi in his recent speeches had claimed that the Opposition had ‘psychologically’ broken Prime Minister Modi, citing the fact that his government was dependent on the support of allies in Lok Sabha for its survival.
The Lok Sabha results had given fresh impetus to the Congress’ offensive against the BJP and there was confidence that the Haryana results would strengthen the narrative that the BJP is a party in decline. However, the actual outcome has left Congress stunned and also under attack from its allies. And what’s more, suddenly the so-called ‘psychological pressure’ has shifted to the ranks of the opposition.
The next major electoral battlegrounds are Maharashtra and Jharkhand, where parliamentary elections will be held at the end of this year. The historic victory in Haryana has given the much-needed confidence boost to the BJP as it gears up for the next round of state elections. The opposition, on the other hand, has its work cut out for it as it realizes it must go back to the drawing board and reassess its strategy for the challenge ahead.
Haryana and Maharashtra may not have many things in common. But there is an uncanny similarity in the way the BJP was positioned vis-à-vis the opposition in both the states after the Lok Sabha elections. In Haryana, the Congress had wrested five Lok Sabha seats from the BJP, while in Maharashtra the opposition bloc MVA defeated the BJP-led party Mahayuti out and out. However, the Haryana outcome has proven that a good show in the Lok Sabha elections in a state may not be enough to win Assembly elections in that state.
After the Lok Sabha victory in Maharashtra, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising the Congress, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) and Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP), was quick to claim that this was the beginning of the end of Eknath Shinde . government in the state. Several MVA leaders had then claimed that the people of Maharashtra would throw out the Mahayuti government in the upcoming assembly elections. But as Haryana’s outcome shows, people of the state can vote differently in national and state elections. So, the Lok Sabha advantage does not guarantee the success of the parliamentary elections.
The second important lesson and warning for the opposition, especially the Congress, would be to realize the importance of direct struggle in defeating the BJP. The Congress, which snubbed Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP in Haryana, is under fire for being arrogant towards its allies in states where it thinks it is strong. The results show that Congress would have won at least four more seats in Haryana had it had an alliance with AAP. While the country may still not have been in a position to form a government, it would at least have been spared the accusation of being arrogant towards its allies. In Maharashtra, the MVA partners have been struggling to reach a mutually acceptable seat-sharing agreement amid claims and counterclaims from the three parties based on the Lok Sabha results. The Haryana results may help the allies realize the importance of remaining united in their fight against the BJP-led Mahayuti. Also, regional allies could now have the upper hand over Congress, which would not want to push too hard.
Clearly, the Haryana outcome is a wake-up call for the Congress and other opposition parties, who may know that they may have lost the much-touted ‘psychological advantage’ after a better-than-expected Lok Sabha performance.