New Delhi, Sept. 14 -- Three years ago, members of the Opposition huddled at Sharad Pawar's Delhi residence with clear objectives: decide seat-sharing, coordinate campaigns, and turn the INDIA Bloc into an electoral force.

The first meeting of the Bloc's 14-member coordination committee, then envisaged as its highest decision-making body, took place on September 13, 2023. That was to be the committee's last meeting.

Three years on, the committee has vanished. Two of its original members are now in the BJP's camp. This year there was an effort to restore coordination at the national level.

On June 8, opposition leaders held their first major formal meeting in more than two years. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge announced that the parties would now meet every two months.

A meeting in Hyderabad in August was suggested but never occurred.

"We are waiting for the Congress to pick a date for the meeting. There is no word from them on why the Hyderabad meeting did not materialise," a senior Opposition leader told the news agency.

When asked, a senior Congress leader said he had no information.

Meanwhile, there has been a churn in the relationships between the parties that formed the grouping, presenting the Opposition with difficulties ahead of Assembly elections next year in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Goa and Manipur -- states where the parties are allies in certain places, rivals in others, and potential partners in others.

The AAP, which exited the Bloc last year, is locked in an increasingly bitter battle with the Congress in Punjab. On Sunday, it allied with the Goa Forward Party to offer a non-BJP, non-Congress alternative in Goa. The party has plans to go solo in Gujarat.

Even where the state-wise approach has worked electorally, strains have emerged.

The JMM-Congress-RJD alliance comfortably retained power in Jharkhand in 2024, while the National Conference and Congress fought the Jammu and Kashmir polls together and emerged on the winning side.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.