Dispirited opposition on overhaul, membership spree to stay afloat

After a crushing defeat in Lok Sabha elections, coupled with leaders leaving for BJP, parties are deploying different straregies to stay afloat

The deserted party headquarters of major opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh — the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress — in posh avenues of Lucknow are symptomatic of their dispirited leaders and cadre.

The crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, coupled with some of their senior functionaries gravitating towards the rollicking poll machine of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has left these outfits deploying different strategies to stay afloat, even as the by-polls on 13 Assembly seats are due in October.

Their gradual decline, over the past decade, suddenly gained momentum after 2014 when