How internal battles affect alliances

What should have been a routine nomination process for nine MLC seats has exposed something far more telling mdash a visible crack in the Opposition In politics what is not said often matters more than what is This time the silence from the Opposition benches was not just noticeable it was definingThe Opposition did not just miss an opportunity It seemed to step aside from the contest altogether And that more than any speech or statement reveals its current state of disarrayIt is worth remembering how the Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA was formed in 2019 It brought together parties with sharply different ideologies united largely by a single goal mdash to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP out of power Even then it was widely described as an ldquounnatural alliancerdquo Today that description no longer sounds like political criticism it reads like an accurate assessmentInstead of consolidating itself against its principal rival the alliance now appears trapped in its own contradictions Coalitions are tested not when they are formed but when they are required to act cohesively On that count the MVA seems to be faltering Its energies appear increasingly consumed by internal equations rather than external challengesThe contrast with the ruling Mahayuti alliance could not have been sharper Leaders from the BJP including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Sunetra Pawar made their presence felt during the nomination process They may not have shared a stage but they projected a clear message coordination discipline and control It was a display carefully calibrated to signal authorityAcross the aisle the absence was equally telling The MVArsquos key faces Uddhav Thackeray Aaditya Thackeray Supriya Sule and Jayant Patil were nowhere to be seen Even the Congress leadership failed to register a visible presence This wasnrsquot a scheduling gap it appeared to be a political withdrawalFor the average citizen one side looked organised confident and in command while the other appeared disconnected almost resigned In a political climate where perception often travels faster than policy this imbalance matters And right now perception is clearly tilting in favour of the ruling allianceThe MVA has been showing signs of strain for some time with leadership pulls competing ambitions and visible mistrustPolitics is not patient It rewards those who show up and penalises those who hesitate When senior leaders stay away from key moments the message is unambiguous For party workers on the ground this is not just disappointing it is demoralising Leadership after all is as much about presence as it is about strategy The Mahayuti on the other hand has done what confident alliances do it has seized the moment Such moments do more than secure immediate advantage they build narrative momentum and credibility In politics these are assets that compound over timeThere is also a broader lesson here Alliances built primarily to keep a strong opponent out of power rarely sustain themselves unless they evolve beyond that singular objective Indiarsquos national coalitions from the UPA to the NDA have both experienced phases of cohesion and strain depending on how well their partners aligned on a larger vision The MVA now appears to be confronting that same test Managing internal contradictions is no longer optional it is essentialThe warning signs are already visible The Congress has begun staking early claims over MLC and even Rajya Sabha seats likely to arise in 2028 Leaders from Shiv Sena UBT have dismissed these moves as premature But the signal is clear the contest within has begun well before the contest outsideWithin party ranks too the impact is immediate Workers take cues from leadership behaviour When they sense hesitation or disunity at the top it creates uncertainty below Over time this erodes organisational strength and weakens mobilisation capacity often well before an election is foughtFor the Opposition this is not just a moment of setback it is a moment of reckoning Alliances cannot survive on arithmetic alone They require communication clarity and a shared political direction Without these even routine political exercises begin to expose deeper fracturesAnd that may be the clearest takeaway An alliance formed to take on a rival now appears preoccupied with itself When internal battles begin to overshadow external ones this early the outcome is rarely in doubt In politics defeat does not always arrive dramatically more often it begins quietly from within through absence hesitation and silenceSanjeev Shivadekar is political editor midday He tweets SanjeevShivadekSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper