When arithmetic trips chemistry

Dissonance in Delhi Congress reflects the complicated nature of building alliances

The resignation of Arvinder Singh Lovely as Delhi Congress chief days ahead of polling is bad optics for the INDIA bloc. The delay on the part of the Congress in finalising candidates for its share of three seats in the national Capital had hinted at the unease within the party. But beyond the bitterness among local leaders over their failure to land a seat, there are deeper undercurrents triggered by the contradictions in the alliance. Lovely, in fact, spoke about them to explain his decision. Such friction is inevitable when arithmetic overrides chemistry in the making of an alliance. Lovely told reporters that the Congress’s Delhi unit was uncomfortable with the alliance, which was forced on it by the central leadership.

New Delhi, - April 29, 2024: Former Delhi Pradesh Congress President Arvinder Singh Lovely during his interview at his residence in New Delhi, , on Monday, April 29, 2024. (Photo by Arvind Yadav/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

The AAP was built a decade ago on the debris of the Delhi Congress — the former ran for office by demonising the party that had been in office in Delhi for three consecutive terms. Congress leaders now eyeing the opening of the political space in Delhi following AAP leaders being embroiled in alleged corruption scandals and their subsequent arrests, are discomfited by the push from the top to yield space to the same party they were fighting an existential battle against. In Punjab, the state unit held out against a similar alliance — the Congress could not have embraced the ruling AAP when it is the chief opposition in the state. Interestingly, Delhi’s poll data for the 2019 general elections reveals a different story — the Congress is a distant third force, and together, the parties lack the numbers to bridge the gap in votes between the winners and runners-up in the seven parliamentary constituencies in 2019.

The demands of national elections are such that the big picture takes precedence over local details. This can cause immense heartburn in parties and extract a cost. For instance, the PV Narasimha Rao-led Congress imposed a tie-up with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu ahead of the 1996 general elections overruling local objections. The Congress split over the issue and the alliance was a washout. The fact is that despite politics becoming transactional, chemistry on the ground, which is the outcome of party legacies, ideology, and the nature of support bases, does matter in the making and unmaking of electoral alliances. The dissonance in the AAP-Congress alliance in Delhi, despite their common goal of defeating the BJP, highlights this tricky aspect of coalition-building.