Electoral defeats, alliance breakdowns and cross-voting, 2025 was a year of disappointment for India’s opposition. After failing to stop the Bharatiya Janata Party from recapturing the Lok Sabha in 2024, the Congress-led bloc – the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) – also lost state elections in Delhi and Bihar this year. From Aam Aadmi Party to Trinamool Congress, allies have also walked out of the India block over various issues and disagreements over the seat-sharing formula.
The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which began just before the Bihar elections in November, provided a united platform for the India Bloc to protest. Under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, opposition leaders like Tejashwi Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Kanimozhi accused the Election Commission of India of voter disenfranchisement, vote fraud and favoring the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). This was a major election issue for the opposition during Bihar elections.
However, after the NDA was re-elected in Bihar and Nitish Kumar was given an unprecedented tenth term as Chief Minister, the Congress was left alone in blaming ‘vote fraud’ for its election defeat. Its allies like the National Conference (NC) and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) (NCP-SP) have distanced themselves from it.
Here’s a look at the key events that shaped India Block this year:
January: 10 opposition MPs suspended from Waqf Amendment Bill, 2025
The year started on a sour note after 10 opposition MPs joined Parliament’s joint committee. Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 Suspended for ‘irregular behaviour’. The suspended MPs alleged that committee chairperson Jagdambika Pal had set a deadline to submit her report and proceeded with the deliberations ‘clause-by-clause’ in a ‘unilateral’ manner without any discussion. Additionally, Mr Pal suspended MPs after they allegedly “talked to someone on the phone” during the meeting.
february
AAP out of power in Delhi after a decade
End of AAP’s 12-year rule in the capital, BJP came to power Won 48 seats in the 70-member assembly. The Aam Aadmi Party, which could not agree on a pre-poll alliance with its Indian ally Congress, was reduced to 22 seats. Both the parties had contested the Lok Sabha elections together in 2024. Congress, which contested on all 70 seats, failed to open its account. AAP chief and former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal lost his New Delhi seat to BJP’s Pravesh Verma by 4,000 votes, while Congress’s Sandeep Dikshit got 4,568 votes.
An AAP supporter outside the party headquarters in the national capital in February 2025 Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
The opposition’s loss is largely due to AAP and Congress focusing on campaigning against each other besides targeting the BJP. send mixed messages For the voters. India’s allies Shiv Sena and NC criticized AAP-Congress for trying to eat into each other’s votes.
Trinamool announces plans to contest elections alone in 2026
After raising questions about Congress’s ability to lead India, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee He told his MLAs that his party will contest alone in the West Bengal Assembly elections to be held in 2026. Both had also contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Bengal separately, in which Trinamool retained 29 out of 42 seats, while Congress was reduced to one seat.
‘Congress has no base in West Bengal and TMC will not try to strengthen the opposition alliance at its own cost,’ TMC leaders said, accusing Congress of ‘backstabbing’ allies in the state elections. While TMC has not formally walked out of the India block, it is gradually distancing itself from the Congress. Neither Ms Banerjee nor her nephew and TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee participated in Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Vote Adhikar Yatra’ in August-September, and fielded Yusuf Pathan in his place.
July: AAP exits India
After losing Delhi, AAP formally walked out of the India block. Accused Congress of criticizing its own alliance partners and not uniting different parties, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh She announced her exit from her party and said that she will contest Bihar elections on her own.
“The India block can take decisions for itself but we are not a part of it. We fought the Lok Sabha together, but since then Haryana, Delhi and Punjab have fought the bypolls separately and Bihar will also fight separately. Sometimes they (Congress) criticize Akhilesh Yadav, Uddhav Thackeray or Mamata Banerjee. As the largest member of the block, they (Congress) should unite everyone, has they done so,” Mr Singh asked.
August: Vote Adhikar Yatra – Members from India join in
Taking advantage of fears of his name being left out from the voter list, Rahul Gandhi led a 1,300 km long march.voting rights march‘In 25 districts of Bihar in August. Highlighting the problems faced by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and Booth Level Agents (BLAs) over the increasing time limit to verify voters in the SIR process, the yatra gathered huge crowds across Bihar. Forming a united front against the NDA, other party members from the India Bloc sided with Mr Gandhi – Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, TMC’s Yusuf Pathan. Congress’ Bihar alliance chiefs – Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Dipankar Bhattacharya (CPI-ML), Mukesh Sahni (VIP) – also joined Mr Gandhi in spreading the message of ‘vote theft’, alleging that the ECI’s practice was a threat to remove voters who did not favor the BJP.
September: Opposition VP candidate loses
The opposition’s joint candidate is former Supreme Court judge Justice B. Fielding Sudarshan Reddy vice presidentIndia hoped that the NDA’s victory margin would reduce. Given the NDA’s majority in both houses, its candidate – then Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan – was certain to win. India managed to vote out all its MPs. TMC’s Sudip Bandhopadhyay and Saugata Roy who were ill, Congress’s Imran Masood, Vaithilingam and Imran Pratapgarhi, who were abroad, and the always absent Kamal Haasan and Harbhajan Singh also came.
However, the result exposed the cracks in India’s unity as Mr Radhakrishnan got 452 votes – at least 13 votes more than the tally of 439 NDA MPs. Despite claiming ‘100% voting’ with 315 MPs, Mr Reddy fell short by 15 votes. The opposition alleged that all 15 votes invalidated were its own, but did not deny cross-voting.
November: MGB ruined in Bihar
The Grand Alliance (MGB) faced Historic defeat in Bihar electionsIt was reduced to just 35 seats but got 37.6% votes. The NDA emerged victorious, winning 202 of the 243 seats, garnering 46.5% of the votes, while the BJP and JD(U) won 89 and 85 seats, respectively. The NDA’s caste-based alliance, Modi-Nitish’s popularity among women voters and its sustained campaign against MGB’s ‘jungle raj’ worked in its favour, as an amount of ₹10,000 was given to one crore ‘Jeevika Didis’ on the eve of voting under the state government’s scheme to empower women.
However, it was the missteps in India’s campaign that led to the NDA’s biggest victory in Bihar. Internal conflict over seat-sharing, delayed campaign, RJD’s rigidity on fielding Tejashwi Yadav as the CM face affected the opposition’s campaign. Voters also believed in the NDA’s strength in delivering on its promise of ‘one crore jobs’ compared to the MGB’s ‘one government job per family’. Women, who faced the most deletion of names from the voter list, turned out to vote in greater numbers than men and preferred the NDA over the MGB. The Hinduresearch of,
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, RJD leaders Tejashwi Yadav and Rohini Acharya Yadav, and CPI (ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya during the ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar’s Saran district in August. Photo: AICC via PTI
After the elections, both Congress and RJD faced internal conflict. A few months after Tej Pratap Yadav’s ouster, the Lalu Prasad family saw Roshni Acharya ousted from their camp. On review, RJD leaders blamed poor ticket distribution, Jeevika Didi’s bailout, wasted focus on SIR and poor leadership of Mr Tejashwi’s political ally Sanjay Yadav for their defeat.
On the other hand, the Congress high command stuck to its claim of ‘vote fraud’ despite its local leaders pointing out campaign flaws like RJD’s ‘burden of jungle raj’, influx of ‘outsiders’ and ineffective leadership of AICC in-charge of Bihar Krishna Allavuru. India’s ally Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) is also upset that it was not given any seat to contest elections in Bihar.
December
Discord in India over ‘vote theft’ claim!
There is a continuous decline in support for Rahul Gandhi’s claims.vote fraud‘ and termed SIR as an exercise to ‘disenfranchise voters’ among its own allies. While most of the top Congress leaders like Priyanka Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and KC Venugopal keep accusing the Election Commission of ‘murdering democracy’, Indian allies like NC and NCP have distanced themselves from the claim. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mr Omar Abdullah said the issue of ‘vote theft’ was raised only by the Congress and “the India faction has nothing to do with it”, while NCP-SP MP Supriya Sule said, “If there is data (on ‘vote theft’), let us debate.” Both Mr Abdullah and Ms Sule countered Mr Gandhi’s allegations of rigging of electronic voting machines (EVMs), saying they did not question their use.
While opposition members held a joint protest in Parliament over SIR, no other party except Congress participated in it ‘Vote theft’ rally Held on 14 December at Ram Leela Maidan, Delhi.
MVA dissolved for local elections in Maharashtra
India’s Maharashtra alliance termed as the last blow Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) This came to light in the civic elections held across the state in December. In the first round of local body elections in Maharashtra, the MVA managed to win only 52 of the 288 municipal councils and nagar panchayats where elections were held. While the Congress managed to win 28 mayoral posts, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP-SP won only nine and seven mayoral posts respectively – virtually ending the dominance of the Thackeray and Pawar clan in semi-urban Maharashtra.
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and MNS chief Raj Thackeray during a press conference after announcing their alliance for the upcoming BMC elections in Mumbai. , Photo Credit: Emmanuel Yogini
Soon after the results, Congress announced that it planned to contest the elections alone Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) electionsWhile Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray buried a 15-year-old feud with cousin and MNS chief Raj Thackeray. Two branches of Shiv Sena depend on ‘Marathi’ Manus’ Try to reclaim the city as your fight for survival. Similarly, the Pawar clan later called for a ceasefire NCP-SP join hands with Ajit PavaR Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad will jointly contest the civic elections. The NCP is facing two alliances – Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) along with its new ally MNS and the BJP-Sena alliance.
Even cracks are visible in the BJP-Shiv Sena as the BJP has refused to accept the Sena’s demand to contest 35-50 seats out of the 165 seats in the two city councils. There is confusion over the grand alliance in Pune as Shiv Sena is likely to contest the council elections alone, though it has tied up with the BJP for Mumbai.
