Once the UP elections results were declared on March 11, former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah put out a series of tweets on the unprecedented, seemingly whitewash defeat of major political parties in UP.  “At this rate,” he said in one of his tweets, “we might as well forget 2019 and start planning & hoping for 2024.”

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This was bitter medicine for other parties, and the Congress, in a knee-jerk reaction, asked Abdullah “to stop spending time on Twitter and to take some interest in the affairs of Jammu & Kashmir”. This wasn’t the kind of statement that behooves a party whose roots go as deep as the Indian freedom struggle, and whose political heft, even though diminished, still holds a potential for resurgence. It wasn’t Congress alone whose reactions seemed churlish. Reactions from other parties and political stalwarts were no better.

BSP supremo Mayawati, unable to comprehend the disastrous performance of her party, failed to take her defeat gracefully. She blamed the purported EVM manipulations for the reason behind her defeat. Similarly, AAP also latched onto the convenient EVM bandwagon — blaming machines for their dismal performance in the MCD polls. What has been missing in the aftermath of these defeats is introspection.  If these leaders were hoping that such insinuations would catch on in public imagination, and turn the tide in their favour, then they were mistaken.

Indians can read the old political blame-game script, having had their fill of negative narratives. With 2019 in mind, parties need to work on multiple fronts if they intend to pose a challenge to the BJP’s hold over the 17th Lok Sabha.  First, radical and egalitarian changes need to be instituted in the organisational structures of the parties. Political parties that have become beholden to families do not stand for internal democracy. Far too many cadres have complaints of grassroots leaders failing to rise to state or national levels as higher posts are often marked out for sons and relatives of veteran leaders.

Such nepotism will have to be eliminated. Second, for 2019, a true leader of the masses with an appeal that spans across India has to emerge for any coalition to present a challenge to Modi. Jayalalithaa is no more, Nitish’s influence does not go beyond Bihar, the Yadav clan seems vanquished, and Rahul Gandhi is a disappointment.

Even if the Opposition forms a ragtag alliance, people are smart enough to see political opportunism in it. Without an ideological framework and a pitch for development, opposition parties are better off aiming for 2024.