To defeat BJP, Opposition should draw lessons from recent student elections

The emergence of regional parties, some of which are extremely strong, presents both advantages and challenges for the BJP and the Congress

Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati’s recent statement that she will go it alone if she doesn’t get a ‘respectable number of seats’ may sound disturbing to those wishing for an opposition front against the BJP in the 2019 parliamentary elections. She would be a key pillar of any nation-wide coalition and had agreed to put up a joint candidate along with the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal in the Kairana by-election, where the BJP lost by a huge margin. It had raised hopes that Mayawati, along with other political heavyweights such as Mamata Bannerjee and Sharad Pawar, would