New Delhi, June 14 -- NEW DELHI - India's largest opposition alliance lost its second-biggest constituent this month when the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam declared on June 8 that it no longer belongs to the INDIA bloc, a departure that leaves the grouping weaker, smaller, and less capable of presenting a national challenge to the Bharatiya Janata Party than at any point since its formation three years ago.

The break was not quiet. DMK leader R.S. Bharathi compared the Congress party to an unfaithful spouse. "No one lives with a wife who runs away," he told reporters, ruling out any future alliance with the party that had been the DMK's electoral partner for twenty years. The party's general secretary, Udhayanidhi Stalin, called the Congress...