Opinion | The ‘Ajeeb Dastaan’ Of B Teams In Indian Politics - News18

Opinion | The ‘Ajeeb Dastaan’ Of B Teams In Indian Politics - News18

Despite being the largest party in the country after the BJP—and once surpassing the BJP—the Congress has now become, in the absence of any structural reinvention, a shadow of its former self. (AP Photo, file)

Indian politics has many unique linguistic expressions, one of which is ‘B Team’. Political parties are routinely accused of being the B Team of some other party. The accusation assumes that there is an ‘A Team’, which has a subordinate accessory to help it maintain its status as the A Team. Foreign observers may be a trifle perplexed by how many of our political parties have had the dubious distinction of being labelled the B Team of another party. However, in our rajneeti, name-calling of this nature is routine.

Among the B Teams, it is difficult to say which party leads the pack. The BJP remains above the fray, being, by and large, a consolidated monolith. It is the Opposition parties that are at loggerheads and, therefore, more susceptible to this derisive tag. To a large extent, their behaviour warrants such a conclusion. At the macro level, they have agreed to huddle together as one bloc called the INDIA Alliance. Yet, at the micro level, this alliance is riddled with so many contradictions and rivalries that any—or all—of them can, at some level, be accused of directly or indirectly helping the BJP, thus qualifying for the title of being its B Team.

Even a cursory look at our current political landscape makes this crystal clear. In the Haryana Assembly elections last year, which the Congress was overwhelmingly expected to win, the Congress and the AAP—both members of the INDIA bloc—fought against each other, thus facilitating the BJP’s surprise victory. Who, then, was the B Team of the BJP: the Congress, which refused to bring the AAP on board, or the AAP, which refused to align with the Congress?

Purely from the BJP’s perspective, both qualify. The Congress’s misplaced hubris in believing it could win on its own without sharing the spoils with the AAP, and the AAP’s aggressive demands, which the Congress deemed disproportionate to its actual strength on the ground, pitted the two against each other. This led to the ironic outcome in many seats where the BJP’s winning margin was more or less the same as the number of votes the AAP cut from the Congress.

The same scenario is repeating itself in the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections.

The Congress and the AAP are at each other’s throats. The votes they undercut from each other will harm both, ultimately benefiting the BJP. The spectacle of two alliance partners fighting a common political opponent by fighting each other is truly bizarre. Similarly, the Left parties and the Congress oppose their common alliance partner, the TMC, in West Bengal. Meanwhile, the Congress and the Left—both alliance partners—are locked in direct competition in Kerala.

Akhilesh Yadav in UP believes that if the Congress demands more seats than it deserves, it is effectively aiding the BJP. In Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD has stated that his party’s alliance with the Congress was only for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, implying that it is no longer necessary for the two parties to contest together in the upcoming Assembly elections due in October-November this year.

Finally, Owaisi, with his sharp rhetoric in support of Muslims, is perceived by many of his own supposed allies as helping the BJP consolidate Hindu votes. He too, therefore, is seen as the BJP’s B Team. Moreover, any new political formation—even if it is anti-BJP—is viewed by those also opposing the BJP as the B Team of the ruling party, on the grounds that it might cut votes from the anti-BJP pool.

Bhaiyon aur behnon, yeh majra kya hai? Frankly, with so many allegations of ‘cutting’ and ‘splitting’, there is now no cloth left to stitch together an even remotely credible joint front against the BJP—a goal to which all members of the so-called B Team are ostensibly committed!

The blunt truth is that the entire Opposition, in one way or another, has become the B Team of the BJP. In this unfortunate slide from the euphoria following the formation of the INDIA Alliance in 2023, the most culpable is the Congress. Despite being the largest party in the country after the BJP—and once surpassing the BJP—it has now become, in the absence of any structural reinvention, a shadow of its former self. It, therefore, needs to adjust its ambitions to current ground realities, where regional parties are stronger than the grand old party in their own strongholds. If the Congress doesn’t learn to maturely play second fiddle to these parties, it risks becoming a political liability for the anti-BJP effort

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