Electoral defeats, breakup of alliances and cross-voting, 2025 was a year of disappointments for India’s Opposition. After failing to stop the Bharatiya Janata Party to recapture the Lok Sabha in 2024, the Congress-led bloc — Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) also lost State elections in Delhi and Bihar this year. From Aam Aadmi Party to Trinamool Congress, allies have also exited the INDIA bloc over disagreements on various issues and seat-sharing formulae.
The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which kicked off just before the Bihar elections in November, provided a united platform for INDIA bloc to protest. Led by Rahul Gandhi, Opposition leaders such as Tejashwi Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Kanimozhi accused the Election Commission of India of voter disenfranchisement, vote fraud and favouring the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). This was a predominant poll plank for the Opposition during Bihar elections
However, after Bihar re-elected NDA, giving Nitish Kumar an unprecedented tenth term as CM, Congress was left alone blaming ‘vote fraud’ for its electoral drubbing. Its allies such as National Conference (NC) and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) (NCP-SP) have distanced themselves from it.
