There have been many a time in NDA 1 and NDA 2 periods wherein congress was the largest party in the state assembly and still wasnt able to stitch together a coalition and BJP was able to pull the carpet from under its feet. Still Congress still doesn't seem to have learnt from its mistakes.
Today too when the 2024 general election results were coming out, by afternoon it was clear that BJP will win around 230 to 240 seats and INDIA alliance will get around 230 to 240 seats. It immedciatly became apparent that it is the recently roped in partners of NDA i.e. TDP, JDU & JDS will play the kingmakers role in the new lok sabha. If BJP was in the Congress shoes they would have immediatley contacted these parties and tried every opprtunity to make a deal with them. However Congress didnt do anything like that. Sharad Pawar of NCP(SP) contacted them but Modi beat him to it by 10 minutes and extracted their assurance. But as leader of India alliance it should have been congress that should have moved swiftly and tried to rope them in. But as usual they were caught napping as they are used to things coming to them.
This is reflected in their entire efforts of alliances. Whichever states had regional parties as the major player, seat sharing was swiftly closed and they performed well. In whichever states Congress was the major player, alliances did not shape up till last minute or didnt shape up at all. Congress continues to be the sole archilees heel of the opposition.
