The unfolding death of the Janata Parivar offers the Congress much-needed opportunity to grow. Nitish Kumar serves as a voluble, animated katana with which the Janata Dal (U) is now committing hara-kiri in the last bastion of the Janata Parivar that came to prominence during the Mandal movement. The BJP, on the other hand, has grown in stature in Bihar and across the country, after 2015. Without gaining ground in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the Congress has little hope of re-emerging as a stable force in national politics. The vacuum created by the ongoing collapse of the Janata Parties gives the Congress precisely the space it can move into.

Source: Economic Times July 27, 2017 13:41 UTC