Bihar results trigger calls to shift INDIA bloc leadership away from Congress

The results, according to a Congress leader, will drastically hamper the party’s negotiating powers within the Opposition alliance.

The Bihar assembly election results and the Congress’ inability to win enough seats in the Hindi heartland is set to alter the politics of the opposition INDIA bloc, with a growing clamour for a change in leadership and shifting the narrative away from the grand old party.

An empty Congress office in New Delhi after their poor performance in the Bihar assembly elections on Friday. (PTI)

“It is clear that the Congress can’t stop the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The leadership position must go to a party which has a track record of defeating the BJP. Only Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee has an unblemished record of defeating the BJP. The time has come for Banerjee to lead the Opposition group,” said Trinamool’s Lok Sabha MP Kalyan Banerjee.

Another senior TMC leader pointed out that in six straight elections (three assemblies and three Lok Sabha polls), Banerjee has been able to keep the BJP at bay in West Bengal.

For a long time, a splinter group of TMC, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Shiv Sena (UBT) and Samajwadi Party (SP) had been making its own plans, prioritising its regional issues and stitching its own strategy to focus on their goals instead of toeing the line of Congress, which has 99 Lok Sabha seats. The TMC, SP, AAP and Shiv Sena (UBT) collectively have 77 seats in the Lower House — enough to form a pressure group within the larger Opposition bloc.

One of the prominent manifestations of the subgroup’s own political line was in the 2025 Delhi elections when SP, TMC and Shiv Sena (UBT) backed AAP over the Congress in their campaign.

The Bihar debacle on Friday comes just ahead of a series of key assembly elections, starting with Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Puducherry and Kerala next year, followed by Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat in 2027.

CPIM chief MA Baby suggested introspection of the parties and as a group. “India bloc wanted to fight the Bihar polls and wanted to send a message to the country by defeating the BJP. But it didn’t happen. We need to discuss the results within each party and then collectively at a meeting of the INDIA bloc. The ‘vote chor, gaddi chhor’ campaign was well-planned, but the voters didn’t respond to the campaign,” he said.

A senior non-Congress opposition leader pointed out that the Bihar elections have given a warning signal that Muslim voters have split — evident from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) bagging six seats in the Seemanchal region. “It underlines that a section of Muslim voters are looking beyond the INDIA bloc for electoral options. It is a serious issue and we need a stronger campaign,” he said.

The results, according to a Congress leader, will drastically hamper the party’s negotiating powers within the alliance. “We bargained hard for 61 seats in Bihar. But our performance may not help us to bargain hard for extra seats in UP or other Hindi-belt states,” said a senior Congress leader.

Jawaharlal Nehru University’s political science professor Manindra Thakur agrees to an extent. “Bihar results might affect the Congress’ bargaining powers. But in UP, the Congress would be beneficial to the Samajwadi Party. In Bihar, the Congress entirely banked on RJD.”