Opinion: Congress And Co Are Missing A Big Point In 2024 Strategy
NDTV
Even as the Congress and other parties opposed to the BJP engage in purposeful efforts to forge unity to minimise the splitting of the opposition vote, here is an intriguing question - how likely is it that in many parliamentary constituencies where the Congress is supporting a regional party, the Congress vote migrates not to the regional party but to the BJP?
Not very likely would be the intuitive response, considering the sharp historical polarisation between the votaries of the two parties, which has become toxic post 2014. Narendar Pani, Dean of the School of Social Sciences at Bengaluru's National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), would beg to differ with some vehemence.
Dr Pani is the lead author of a recent first-of-its-kind NIAS study on how the Indian electorate has voted in the recent past. He is categorical that it is likely that a statistically significant share of the Congress voter could well choose to vote for the BJP rather than a regional party.
