At this crucial period when the state assembly elections are taking place, this decision of the five Congress MLAs will only strengthen the BJP in the north eastern states where it is losing its earlier dominance and is desperately trying to retain its base. The disquieting feature is that the Congress high command has not at all reacted to the decision of the Meghalaya MLAs to join hands with the BJP, though two days have passed since their announcement. This means that the central leadership, meaning Rahul Gandhi is at tandem with the move of his party legislators.

On the other hand, the BJP president of Meghalaya state unit has objected to the Congress-BJP alliance in the state government stating that the tiger and deer can not drink together. This decision was taken by the Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and at no stage, the BJP state leadership was consulted. The state BJP president has sought central intervention on this issue. Whatever decision the central BJP takes does not matter. The Congress has made a mess in Meghalaya and the endorsement of this by Rahul Gandhi means that whatever smooth talking he does about the formation of anti-BJP front, in ground level, his party fellows are doing opposite.

The Meghalaya Congress consisted of only five legislators after the Trinamool Congress took away 17 MLAs from the Congress Legislature Party. The state Congress is angry at this and they are desperate not to allow Trinamool to come near to power in any manner. Every party has its right to expand its areas of influence including Congress and Trinamool and if Trinamool takes away 17 MLAs so easily, the responsibility lies with the Congress leadership. both at state and the central level. Congress lost Manipur, Meghalaya after the last assembly elections because it could not combat the challenge of the BJP which mobilised more financial resources and muscle power.

The state assembly elections to five states have begun from February 10. In north east, Manipur is going to polls in two phases on February 27 and March 7. Congress has formed a front with the left parties including the CPI and the CPI(M). The front has also come out with a common minimum programme focusing on the immediate demands of the people of Manipur. This has been a right decision for the Congress Party. The alliance with the Left will give Congress more credibility. CPI has many pockets of influence in Manipur. The party had once one Lok Sabha member from Manipur.

The Congress can not be choosy in respect of allies in fighting BJP even though the parties may clash at state level. The Congress can have reservations about the Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee and the party may be having its own reasons. But TMC just like the left parties CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(M) Liberation led by Dipankar Bhattacharya are the trusted allies in the fight against the BJP at national level. The state assembly elections will be over next month and the results will be out on March 10.All the opposition parties who are in the poll fray and fighting each other in many states can have proper assessment about their respective strength so that more pragmatic steps can be taken before the Lok Sabha election for arriving at a common understanding on seats against the BJP and its allies.

In Uttar Pradesh, Mamata Banerjee is campaigning for the Samajwadi Party, She thinks that SP is the best bet against the BJP which is shared by most of the political analysts. She is working for the defeat of the BJP in the biggest state of the country the poll outcome of which will determine to a significant extent the next course of action by the opposition parties. The Congress is fighting alone and Priyanka Gandhi is leading the party in Uttar Pradesh. Priyanka is looking at the future and she wants the organisation to expand through campaigning during the current election. Fine. She is young and she can certainly look for a vision five or ten years hence.

But for the People of India who are suffering in the last eight years of Narendra Modi's regime, a long term planning by the Congress, should be limited to Uttar Pradesh. The Congress has to take into account the ground reality to adjust its strategy so that the broadest possible unity of the non-BJP forces is possible. It should include apart from the Congress, TMC, Shiv Sena, DMK, NCP, the regional non-BJP parties of the North East on the one hand and the other big ruling regional parties like YSRC in Andhra Pradesh, TRS in Telangana and Biju Janata Dal in Odisha. In Goa, Congress is fighting both TMC and AAP as also BJP. Both TMC and AAP have said that in the event of a hung assembly, they are ready for a non-BJP coalition. Congress has to be ready for this eventuality if the party really wants to keep BJP out of power.

All the non-Congress opposition parties are watching at every move of the Congress. Rahul Gandhi has certainly emerged as a better acceptable politician to the people in the recent months through his consistency, long term vision and aggression against the BJP government, particularly Narendra Modi. That has to be intensified further... The developments like Meghalaya will only show him in poor light as an emerging leader of the opposition. The Congress supremo must avoid such developments in future so that nobody including Mamata can question his credibility as one of the main leaders of the non-BJP front. (IPA Service)