Inside the Political Slide: The Opposition’s Self-Inflicted Defeats from Maharashtra to Bihar
The general election of June 2024 should have been a reset button for India’s Opposition. They had spent years insisting that voter anger was building, that the “winds of change” were gathering, that the BJP was vulnerable. Instead, what followed were four state elections—Haryana in October 2024, Maharashtra in November 2024, Delhi in February 2025, and finally Bihar in November 2025—that delivered the same verdict with increasing loudness.
Four opportunities.
Four defeats.
And one unmistakable pattern: the Opposition is losing not because the BJP is unbeatable, but because it keeps misreading the Indian voter with astonishing consistency.
Across these states, the pattern clearly shows how narrative handling shapes public mood. The Opposition, however, kept building campaigns on emotional theatrics, not grounded reality. Their vocabulary—filled with “atom bomb,” “hydrogen bombs,” “vote chori,” “rigged EVMs,” “managed SIR,” “murder of democracy,” “India’s Gen Z” and even personal attacks on the Prime Minister and the armed forces—only deepened the perception that they were out of touch with India’s aspirations. And every election afterwards punished them in ways increasingly difficult to explain away.
Maharashtra 2024: The Landslide They Never Saw Coming
The first shock came in November 2024, barely months after the Lok Sabha polls. Maharashtra went to the polls with the Opposition confident that anti-incumbency, farmer anger, and internal BJP tensions would favour them. Instead, the BJP-Shiv Sena (Shinde)-NCP (Ajit Pawar) Mahayuti alliance stormed to 235 of 288 seats, delivering one of the most decisive mandates in the state’s recent history.
The Opposition tried to cast the result as “money power” and “political engineering,” but the voter had already judged them on a different scale: instability, infighting, and a narrative that spoke more about grievance than governance.
Maharashtra’s message was simple:
“If you can’t govern your own coalition, don’t ask to govern the state.”
Haryana 2024: A Reality Check They Ignored
However, a month earlier, in October 2024, Haryana had already sent up a warning flare. Despite rural dissatisfaction and high expectations of an Opposition surge, the BJP delivered a third consecutive victory, winning 48 of 90 seats. Congress improved its numbers but still fell short.
Haryana’s verdict was not about ideology. It was about clarity. The BJP spoke one message; the Opposition spoke five. The BJP promised continuity; the Opposition projected confusion. And the voter chose the simpler option.
The real loss here was psychological. Haryana told the Opposition that their national narrative was not working. They chose not to hear it.
Delhi 2025: When Excuses Collapse Under Arithmetic
Then came February 2025, the Delhi Assembly election. AAP and Congress formed a tepid alliance in whispers but campaigned separately in practice, attacking the BJP more than defending their own record.
The result was brutal: the BJP won 48 of 70 seats, reducing the Opposition to irrelevance. AAP, which once boasted of invincibility in Delhi, sank to 22 seats, while Congress faded away completely with 0 seats.
Instead of introspection, the Opposition revived familiar ghosts—EVM rigging, agencies, conspiracies, intimidation. But Delhi voters, long accustomed to evaluating governance over rhetoric, were unmoved.
Delhi’s message was sharper than Maharashtra’s or Haryana’s:
“If you refuse responsibility, we refuse you.”
Bihar 2025: The Landslide That Ended the Denial
Nothing, however, prepared the Opposition for Bihar’s 2025 verdict.
On 6 and 11 November 2025, Biharis voted in what should have been a competitive election considering anti-incumbency and cast factors. Yet the counting on 14 November 2025 produced numbers that stunned the political class:
NDA = 202 seats
Mahagathbandhan + allies + independent = 34 seats
This was not a defeat; it was a complete rejection. A collapse. A referendum on a political culture that the voter no longer had patience for.
The Opposition blamed the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls, claiming minority deletion. But the Election Commission had removed duplicate, deceased, and migrated entries—a routine process under Rule 21A. In Seemanchal, where illegal immigration is a lived reality, the NDA’s counter-campaign resonated far more than the Opposition’s conspiracy claims.
When top opposition leaders, especially from Congress (INC) accused the Election Commission, questioned the Army, mocked schemes like Agniveer, travelled abroad to criticise India, and hurled personalised insults at the Prime Minister, they committed the one mistake Indian voters do not forgive: confusing political theatre for national insult.
The voter did not punish the Opposition for being anti-BJP.
They punished them for being anti-India.
The Opposition overlooked a simple truth: Narendra Modi is the Prime Minister of Bharat — the nation’s constitutionally elected leader — and for countless Indians, he stands as an undisputed emblem of national pride. Disrespecting him has never, and will never help the Opposition.
Bihar’s message was crystal clear:
“If you cannot respect the institutions we trust, do not ask for our trust.”
Why This Slide Keeps Getting Worse
The Opposition’s consistent failure stems from two blind spots: emotional miscalculation and narrative incompetence.
First, they underestimate how deeply Indians value stability, dignity, and national pride. Every time opposition cry EVM fraud or vote theft without evidence (or fabricated stories) they belittle the voter’s agency. Every time they attack the armed forces or caricature India’s global rise, they strike the voter’s sense of self-worth.
Second, they offer no positive vision.
“Remove Modi” is not an economic policy.
“Save Constitution” is not a development roadmap, constitution is anyway safe.
“Secularism vs. communalism” rings hollow when Islamist extremism across regions goes unaddressed.
“Eradicate Sanatan” alienates millions who see their faith as cultural identity, not political ideology.
Meanwhile, the BJP speaks in a language the voter understands—delivery, dignity, development, digital empowerment, and national pride. It is the aspirational vocabulary of a rising society.
The Opposition counters with alarmism.
The result is predictable.
Historical Background
Bihar’s voter carries a long memory, and the Lalu-era Jungle Raj still weighs heavily on the state’s political instincts. Polling booth capturing, kidnappings, extortion, lawlessness and corruption were not abstractions but lived experiences — and no amount of new messaging has erased that imprint.
Congress faces its own historical shadow – each time it invokes “Save the Constitution,” voters recall the only moment the Constitution was actually suspended by Congress — the Emergency — making the slogan sound less like a warning and more like an irony.
The setback of May–June 2024 was never an ideological shift under “Save the Constitution” slogan; it was a rebuke to the BJP’s momentary complacency. Voters nudged the ruling party, not because they were drawn to the Opposition’s message, but because they expected higher delivery. The very next elections — Maharashtra, Haryana, Delhi, and Bihar — showed the difference between a temporary correction and a long-term preference.
And when Congress leaders speak of Gen-Z uprisings, the Indian voter remembers the chaos that gripped Bangladesh, Nepal and Madagascar — movements widely viewed as ‘externally’ fuelled. Instead of inspiration, such references trigger suspicion among voters who reject instability masquerading as youth revolution.
The Final Realisation: Defeat Isn’t Their Problem. Denial Is.
From Maharashtra (2024) to Haryana (2024), from Delhi (2025) to Bihar (2025), the pattern is not cyclical—it is structural.
The Opposition is losing because it refuses to learn. It refuses to adapt. It refuses to accept that India has changed, and the new voter is confident, patriotic, and impatient with political melodrama.
Bihar did not merely defeat the Opposition.
It exposed the hollowness of their excuses.
Maharashtra reminded them about credibility.
Haryana reminded them about clarity.
Delhi reminded them about accountability.
Bihar reminded them about maturity.
The Indian voter has not rejected change.
They have rejected the childishness.
Until the Opposition stops whining and starts working, stops blaming and starts building, stops fearing Modi and starts understanding India—every election will not be a referendum on the ruling party.
It will be a referendum on the Opposition’s relevance.
