However, there are reasons why opposition parties must contemplate joining hands.
These arise from the post-2014 opposition experience of taking on incumbent BJP governments and, more importantly, the changed ground conditions in present-day UP.
The Case for Larger Party Alliances Albeit With A CM Face
In relation to the former, we focus on medium and large states (for this piece, states with ten or more parliamentary constituencies) with multi-party contexts. Because this is the backdrop of the UP election, and because elections in other situations—in smaller states with two-party contexts and/ or where the BJP is a challenger—have a different dynamic.
The experience with six assembly elections across five states during the Narendra Modi years—Assam (2021), Bihar (2015, 2020), Haryana (2019), Jharkhand (2019), and Maharashtra (2019)—suggests that a pre-poll coalition of larger opposition parties, like in Bihar (2015) and Jharkhand, has better chances of usurping the BJP.
Such…