Anti-Modi front would need Congress support to succeed

Significance

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had mixed results in recent state elections; it notably failed to displace Mamata Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) from power in the key battleground of West Bengal. The main opposition Congress party’s poll performance was, as expected, underwhelming.

Impacts

• The 2022 Uttar Pradesh state poll will be the immediate focus for electoral strategists in the BJP and other locally influential parties.
• Congress will struggle to overcome infighting over its presidency even as it asserts its credentials to lead a broad anti-Modi alliance.
• Modi’s government may open corruption cases against key opposition leaders in a bid to distract them from efforts to form a united front.